NONTRADITIONAL MANUFACTURING PROCESSES MF30604

Lasers for Manufacturing Processes

Lecture:4

Laser Processing Setup Laser Processing Setup * Laser system * Beam Transport system & Beam Delivery System * Workstation

Lasers used in Manufacturing: Lasers those can provide high CW or average laser power required for material processing * Solid State Laser : Nd:YAG Laser- Flash Lamp or Diode Laser Pumped * CO2 Laser * Diode Laser * Fiber Laser * Excimer Lasers * He-Ne Laser for alignment, pointer, metrological applications

Lasers for Materials Processing Applications & their Characteristics

Characteristics Wavelength m Laser power,cw Pulse energy Efficiency % Beam Diverg. Beam Transportation Absorption in metals Life, CW Hrs.) Pulsed (Shots) Size of lasers Maintenance intervals (Hr) Mode of operation CO2 Laser 9.6-10.6 Upto 45kW 1-20 J 10-15 1-3 mr. Reflecting mirrors Low ~2-15% ~ 1000s. ~106 Large 1000-2000 CW & Pulsed: mssub-s Nd:YAG Laser 1.06 50W- 2kW 1-100J 220 Diode pump 1 25 mr. Optical fibers Moderate ~5-30% ~200 Life of ~106 lamps Moderate 500-1000 CW & Pulsed: msSub-ps Diode Lasers 0.8-1.0 Up to 4kW 20-40 1x200 mr Optical fibers Moderate ~5-30% ~ 1000s. Compact Excimer Lasers 0.193-0.354 --Avg.1kW 1-10J, 2-3 2 6 mr. Optical fibers High >50% 104-107 (one gas fill) Moderate Fiber Laser 1.06 10kW 30 1-2 mr. Optical fibers Moderat e ~5-30% Compact 5,00010,000 CW & Pulsed: ms- Sub-

5,000500-1000 10,000 CW & Pulsed Modulated 10s ns

Lasers: Types, Wavelength, Power

For Laser Material Processing: Laser Power Density at Focus of a Lens = Laser Power / Focused beam area Focused Beam Area (i) Focal length of focusing lens- f, (ii) Laser Beam Diameter - Dr (iii) Laser Beam Quality M2 Best quality Beam i.e. TEM00 M2 =1 (iv) Laser Beam Divergence of Laser Beam of beam quality factor M2 Half angle r = 2M2./.Dr Focal spot size, dspot= 2.f. r = 4.f.M2. / Dr DOF, d = +0.4 M2 . .f2 / Dr2 Depth of Focus, d by which beam size changes by 5%

Rayleigh Range . Zr = w02/ For Multimode Laser Beam Zrm = Dr2/ 4M2

Carbon Dioxide Laser

Laser Medium Laser Wavelength Mode of Operation Excitation Method Efficiency Laser Power : : : : : : Mixture of CO2, N2 & He 9.6-10.6 micron (Infrared) (Tunable) Continuous Wave (CW)& Pulsed Electrical Discharge: DC, RF, Pulsed 10-15% CW- A Few Watts to Tens of kW PulsedRep. Rate : Single pulse - 100kHz Av. Power : kW Pulse duration : ms- s Pulse Energy : 1-10s Joules Conventional Diffusion Cooled Laser Hi-power Fast Axial Flow Laser Hi-power Transverse Flow Laser

Types of CO2 Laser

CO2 Laser Excitation

e - Accelerated in Electric Discharge,

Electrons gain energy. (Hi K.E.) + N2 N2* + e (Low K E) N2* + CO2 N2 + CO2* CO2* CO2 + Laser Photon

ULL LLL
Lasing

N2*

E
+He

+e

CO2

N2

Conventional Diffusion Cooled CO2 Laser

CO2 Laser System Using The Gas-Flow Discharge Principle

Laser Power = 50W/ m in Diffusion cooled laser, Maximum Laser Power Limited by Gas Heating

Convective Cooled FAF CO2 Lasers

Convective Cooled Laser: Laser gas cooled by circulating the gas through Heat Exchanger

P.S .

Fast Axial Flow CO2 Laser Flow Velocity = 100 - 300m/s Laser Power ~ 1kW/m DC, Radio Frequency Excitation Excellent Beam Quality, 1- 5 kW Laser Commercially Available Gas Blower

Nd:YAG Solid State Laser

Laser Medium : Neodymium ion Nd3+ doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG)

Laser Wavelength: Mode of Operation Excitation Method

1.06 micron (Infrared) : : Continuous Wave (CW)& Pulsed Optical Pumping Xenon Flash Lamp for Pulsed Mode Krypton Arc Lamp for CW Mode Diode Laser Lamp pumped lasers- 2-5% Diode pumped lasers- 15-20%

Efficiency

Construction of a Nd:YAG Laser

Output Mirror Elliptical Reflecting Cavity Mirror

Laser Rod Laser Beam Flash Lamp Q-switch / Mode-Lock Switch

Power Supply Abs. Spe. of Laser Rod

Spectrum of Lamp

Spectrum of Diode Laser

E
Lasing

*Lamp pumping: Low Efficiency

*Diode pumping: High Efficiency

Diode Pumped Solid State Laser

Axial Pumping
Lens Laser Rod Laser Beam

Diode Laser

Mirror

Mirror

Side Pumping

Diode Arrays

Fiber Laser
Diode Laser

Active Medium: Optical (Silica Glass) Fiber with cladding, doped with either Ytterbium / Neodymium / Erbium or their combinations for different laser wavelength in 1-1.6 m range. Excitation / Pump source : Diode Lasers Most popular Fiber Laser for material processing applications: Ytterbium doped fiber operating at ~ 1m wavelength, pumped by diode lasers Size: Most common Single mode Fiber ~ 10m dia. & 10s m length Mode of operation: CW, modulated, pulsed Laser Beam quality: Excellent Laser Power : up to several kWs, Laser Efficiency: up to 30% Key advantage: High surface-area-to-volume, less thermal problems.

Semiconductor Diode Lasers

Active medium: Semiconductor similar to a light-emitting diode. Most common type of laser diode: p-n junction Excitation: Injected electrical current. In forward biased holes and electrons recombine at the p-n interface and they emit light. This is spontaneous emission like in LED. Under certain condition, population inversion is achieved and spontaneous emission leads to laser light by stimulated process. Typical Materials used : GaAs, AlGaAs, GaInAsP Laser Wavelength: 600nm- 1.650micron range Power: Few mW to a few Ws in a single chip and up to several kWs in 2-3D arrays Efficiency: 30-50% Mode of operation: CW & Modulated up to 50kHz Beam quality: Poor than other lasers due to very small area of emission Beam Delivery: Through Optical Fiber

Excimer Laser:
Excimer : Excited Homo-nuclear ( e.g. Xe2*) molecule- Dimer Excited Hetro-nuclear (e.g. KrF*, XeCl*, ArF*) molecule - Excimer Ground State repulsive or very weakly bound Formed in the electric discharge in the excited state having very short lifetime. Laser action between Excited bound state & Repulsive ground state Due to short upper laser level lifetime: Very high input power density required for creating population inversion. e + Kr e + Kr* e+ F2 e+ F +F Kr* + F + M KrF* + M Three body Collision: High Operating Pressure

Because of very short lived (10s ns ) upper laser level & high operating gas pressure, Excimer lasers are operated in Pulsed mode only

Wavelength 193nm 248nm 308nm 351nm

Active Gas Argon Fluoride Krypton Fluoride Xenon Chloride Xenon Fluoride

Relative Power 60 100 50 45

Typical Operating Conditions Laser Gas Mixture: Kr, He, F2 Total Gas Pressure: 2-4 Atmospheric pressure, Discharge Voltage: 15-30kV Pulse repetition rate: 1-1000Hz Pulse Energy : 50-500mJ; Efficiency : 2-3% Laser Pulse duration: 10-100ns High Laser Peak Powers Average Laser Power: up to several 100s W
Av. Power (W) = Energy (mJ) X Rep.Rate (Hz)/1000

Applications: Cutting - Diamond to Cornea of Eye, Biological tissuesCold Cutting Drilling, Micromachining, Lithography Ablation- Dermatology

Applications of Laser in Manufacturing

Laser Cutting of Metal Sheets, Glass, Wood, Plastics, Textiles, Rubber, Ceramic, Marble etc. Laser Welding of Similar & Dissimilar metals & Alloys. Laser Surface Hardening Laser Surface Alloying Laser Surface Cladding Laser Rapid Manufacturing Laser Marking, Engraving Laser Metal Forming