Ultrashort pulse (USP) laser machining is characterized both by high spatial precisions as well as rapid changes during the processing. Laser pulses with durations of only a few hundred femtoseconds are deflected over the workpiece surfaces at speeds of up to 10 m/s. Due to the tradeoff between the precision and the productivity, USP laser machining processes can last up to multiple days. Online defect detection and their elimination is therefore essential in order to increase the stability of the established processing as well as accelerate the process development. However, monitoring of USP laser micromachining represents a great challenge because of both the high requirements for the spatial accuracy and the cost-intensive sensor integration. In the scope of this work, this challenge is tackled by laterally collecting the optical process emissions with photodiodes for different wavelength ranges. The monitoring system, which had previously been developed and had undergone initial testing, is further evaluated in this work. These most recent analyses aim to investigate the detection of the surface roughness prior to as well as its evolution during the USP laser machining. In addition, successful localization of defects induced on the workpiece surface by the USP processing is shown. Furthermore, the possibility of online process control was demonstrated by transferring the analysis algorithms to a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and implementing a real-time defect detection and feedback to the user. A decision for each data point is generated within the 10-μs cycle of the data acquisition. Furthermore, the system can be programmed flexibly and thus expanded to include real-time data analyses for further applications as well as process control. In conclusion, the analyses of laterally recorded secondary emissions have shown great potential for differentiating between surface roughness above 1 μm as well as tracking changes for every pass over the surface and localizing defects during the USP-laser machining.
Ultrashort pulse (USP) laser machining is characterized by a large spatial precision in the micrometer range and very high processing speeds: Laser pulses with durations of only a few hundred femtoseconds are deflected over the workpiece at speeds of up to 10 m/s. Due to the tradeoff between the precision and productivity, machining processes already last up to multiple days, as is the case for example for structuring complete mold tools of dashboards. It is therefore essential to implement online defect detection and their elimination in order to increase the stability of the established processing as well as accelerate the process development. Because of the rapid changes during the machining, cost-intensive sensor integration, as well as the high requirements on spatial accuracy, online monitoring of USP laser micromachining represents a great challenge, we solve by spatially resolving optical process emissions at different wavelength ranges collected laterally. The monitoring system, that had previously been developed and had undergone initial testing, was further evaluated in this work. Analyses were carried out to investigate the potential of detecting the surface roughness prior to processing as well as its change induced by the USP laser machining. Their success is however dependent on many factors described in this work. Furthermore, successful localization of defects that emerge during processing was shown. Additionally, the possibility of online process control was demonstrated by transferring the analysis algorithms to FPGA, therefore implementing real-time defect detection and feedback.
As a result of laser ablation, a surface roughness Sa between 0.4 μm and 2μm is obtained on 3D structures that have to be polished afterwards to meet customer requirements. For that reason a laser polishing process using ultrashort pulse laser sources is investigated. Applying the polishing process immediately after laser structuring in the same setting simplifies the process chain and saves both time and money. The results reveal an improvement of the surface roughness from an initial grinded surface with 0.4 μm to 0.2 μm by ultrashort pulse laser polishing. The productivity measured by the area that can be processed per time (polishing rate) is with 12.15 cm2/min one order of magnitude higher than state of the art laser polishing using nanosecond pulsed lasers.
Surface functionality is an increasing and crucial factor for the success and acceptance of a product. Through structured surfaces products can gain additional functions. Microstructures enable, for example, friction reduction in combustion engines or optimize the efficiency of LED-based illumination systems. Furthermore, in the area of consumer products optical and haptic functions determine essentially the product quality.
The most common way to create surface functionality in mass production are replication processes via structured mold tools. In industrial environment nanosecond pulsed laser sources are established due to their high throughput. Ultrafast laser processing still have shown their advantages characterized by highly precise ablation with minimal thermal influence. Nevertheless, the achieved productivity is still too low for industrial applications in many cases due to the low ablation rate of ultrashort pulse laser processing.
To overcome the above mentioned drawback, we investigate ultrashort pulsed laser processing using pulse bursts including pauses to avoid heat accumulation and several scaling strategies like increasing the repetition frequency and enlarging the spot size. The experiments are processed with a pulse duration of 900 fs or 2 ps for productivity reasons. Using average powers of more than 70 W an ablation rate of up to 13 mm3/min is achieved. Not only productivity benefits from burst processing with pauses, but also the surface quality gets significantly improved. The roughness of an ablated surface processed with conventional bursts for example amounts Rα = 5.19 μm while the same burst configuration including a pause produces a surface roughness of Rα = 0.51 μm.
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