Product Code: ICA12_808

TEA CO2 Laser Machining of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites
Authors:
Adel Salama, Laser Processing Research Centre, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The Univ. of Manchester; Manchester Great Britain
Paul Mativenga, Laser Processing Research Centre, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The Univ. of Manchester; Manchester Great Britain
Lin Li, Laser Processing Research Centre, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The Univ. of Manchester; Manchester Great Britain
Presented at ICALEO 2012

The use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites has gained wide interests and applications in the aerospace and automobile industries owing to their light weight and acceptable mechanical properties compared to commonly used metallic materials. Machining of CFRP composites using lasers can be challenging due to wide variation in the material properties and structures, which can lead to thermal damage generation during laser processing. In this paper, cutting and milling of CFRP composites using a pulsed TEA CO2 laser was studied in order to evaluate the effect of process parameters such as laser power, cutting speed and repetition rate on quality of laser cut samples. The quality characteristics examined include heat affected zone (HAZ), taper angle and surface roughness. In addition, a surface protection technique using a sacrificial mask was used to reduce thermal damage. Experimental results using the shielding technique show significant improvements in laser cut quality.