Laser ablation: Optimising material removal rate with limited oxidation of Ti6Al4V Available to Purchase

Laser ablation is a method of removing relatively small volumes of material from a substrate and this technique is finding a wide range of exploitation avenues in industry; such as large scale paint remover to composite resin removal. It has particular relevance to the aerospace industry due to the precision and speed of the material removal. In order for this technique to be effective, the laser parameters need to be optimised. In this instance, the volume of material removed has been studied using an Nd:YAG Q-Switched pulsed laser. The laser parameters: speed of the laser, intensity, pulse duration, frequency etc were varied to determine the optimum parameters for the removal of approximately 0.1cm³ of material from Ti6Al4V. It was determined that the rate of material removal is dependent on the laser parameter interaction rather than the overall energy of the system. In parallel, the effect of parameters on the surface of the sample were studied and optimum parameters determined for maximum material removal rate with little or no oxidative effects. In addition, the samples have been mechanically tested using High Cycle Fatigue, and found to be favourable compared to more conventional material removal techniques.