Industrial laser processing of carbon fibres is very promising for large-volume production of CFRP lightweight parts. Yet reduced quality and the large process energy needed for processing carbon requiring high average powers actually limits the use of laser technology.
However, choosing appropriate laser parameters and processing strategies the thermal damage caused by the laser radiation can be utilized to realize a very efficient processing of CFRP: In the first step only small kerfs are created by sublimating the carbon material. By producing two close kerfs fibre fragments are created which can be removed in a second step by just sublimating the matrix material. The detached fiber fragments are either removed by the ablating material pressure or by an additional process gas jet.
The present paper compares the required absorbed energy densities for the different processing strategies of CFRP. The theoretical considerations are compared with experimental results achieved with ns-drilling of blind holes.