Study on high-quality cutting CFRP by ultraviolet nanosecond laser line scanning method

An enhanced ultraviolet (UV) nanosecond laser method is innovatively presented to cut the carbon fiber–reinforced plastics (CFRP), and the action mechanism of the laser and materials is elaborated briefly. This paper mainly studies the UV laser cutting CFRP process experiment, exploring the UV nanosecond laser cutting CFRP laminates of high efficiency and high-quality cutting method. The grooving mode is a line scan cutting mode repeatedly applied to a straight trajectory. The mechanism and photochemical effects are experimentally studied by changing laser parameters detailly. The experimental results are quantitatively evaluated, and the indicators of cutting quality are obtained: the size of the heat-affected zone (HAZ), effective machining time, the profile of the slit, and roughness. The influence law of laser power, scanning speed, repetition rate, and other parameters on each evaluation index and efficiency of groove cutting quality is explored, and the range of process parameters with better cutting quality is obtained. The optimal parameters of the experiments are achieved as follows: the laser power is 10–12.5 W, the scanning speed is 200–500 mm/s, and the repetition rate is 50 kHz by online scanning cutting mode. The results suggest that the UV nanosecond laser method can enhance the quality and efficiency significantly. In a word, it is signified that this investigation could offer an academic reference by UV nanosecond laser based on photochemical effects as well as make some contributions to engineering applications.