- Laser beam melt ablation - a contact-free machining process - offers several advantages compared to conventional processing mechanisms: there exists no tool wear and even extremely hard or brittle materials can be processed. During ablation the workpiece is molten by a CO2-laser beam, this melt is then driven out by the impulse of a process gas. The idea behind laser ablation is rather simple, but it has a major limitation in practical applications: with increasing ablation rates surface quality of the workpiece processed declines rapidly. At high ablation rates, depending on the process parameters different periodic-like structures can be observed on the ablated surface. These structures show a dependence on the line energy, which has been identified as a fundamental control parameter. In dependence on this parameter several regimes with different behaviours of the process have been separated. These regimes are distinguishable as well in the surfaces obtained as in the signals gained by the measurement of the process emissions.Laser beam melt ablation - a contact-free machining process - offers several advantages compared to conventional processing mechanisms: there exists no tool wear and even extremely hard or brittle materials can be processed. During ablation the workpiece is molten by a CO2-laser beam, this melt is then driven out by the impulse of a process gas. The idea behind laser ablation is rather simple, but it has a major limitation in practical applications: with increasing ablation rates surface quality of the workpiece processed declines rapidly. At high ablation rates, depending on the process parameters different periodic-like structures can be observed on the ablated surface. These structures show a dependence on the line energy, which has been identified as a fundamental control parameter. In dependence on this parameter several regimes with different behaviours of the process have been separated. These regimes are distinguishable as well in the surfaces obtained as in the signals gained by the measurement of the process emissions. Further aim is to identify the different modes of the system and reach a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the molten material in order to understand the formation of these surface structures. With this it should be possible to influence the system in the direction of avoiding structure formation even at high ablation rates. Relying on the results on-line monitoring and control of the process should be studied.…
