A detailed study has been conducted into the effect of laser process parameters on the production of periodic surface structures in AISI 316L stainless steel using an ultra-short pulse fibre laser. Links were found between scan speed and pulse energy on feature depth and uniformity. The Gaussian beam profile was found to have a large effect on the quality of features produced across laser scanned tracks. A threshold intensity value for the production of surface ripples was calculated from a Gaussian analysis of measured track widths. The threshold value when machining at 200kHz, 750mms−1, and 2 J was calculated to be 2.35x1014 Wm−2 and was found to agree well with the presented experimental data. Finally an initial study into the effect of incident angle on ripple production was carried out.

Topics
Gaussian beam, Lasers
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