Submerged cutting of AZ31 Mg alloy was studied with ns-pulsed green fiber laser and three different submersion liquids, namely, water, alcohol-water solution, and paraffin based oil. Compared to conventional laser cutting with coaxial process gas, differences due to optical, chemical, and mechanical effects were identified. An analytical solution was introduced to assess the fluence decay due to beam enlargement and absorption in the submersion liquid. The chemical reactions between the Mg alloy and submersion liquid were defined, and weight loss due to chemical effects was studied in static immersion tests. The mechanical instability related to liquid breakdown was studied to reveal the threshold levels for the liquids. The interaction of these mechanisms was studied within process. The results showed dross-free cutting is achievable by submerging the Mg alloy in 0.5 mm alcohol-water solution, which shows a processing condition that enables chemical dissolution of dross without excessive fluence loss or liquid instability. The cut quality of the optimized conditions was comparable to fs-pulsed laser cutting of the same material.

1.
D.
Stoeckel
,
C.
Bonsignore
,
S.
Duda
, and
M.
Dunitz
, “
A survey of stent designs
,”
Minimally Invasive Ther. Allied Technol.
11
,
137
47
(
2002
).
2.
C.
Momma
,
U.
Knop
, and
S.
Nolte
, “
Laser cutting of slotted tube coronary stents—State-of-the-art and future developments
,”
Prog. Biomed. Res.
4
,
39
44
(
1999
).
3.
A.
Raval
,
A.
Choubey
,
C.
Engineer
, and
D.
Kothwala
, “
Development and assessment of 316LVM cardiovascular stents
,”
Mater. Sci. Eng. A
386
,
331
343
(
2004
).
4.
A. G.
Demir
,
B.
Previtali
, and
C. A.
Biffi
, “
Fibre laser cutting and chemical etching of AZ31 for manufacturing biodegradable stents
,”
Adv. Mater. Sci. Eng.
2013
,
1
11
.
5.
A. G.
Demir
and
B.
Previtali
, “
Comparative study of CW, nanosecond- and femtosecond-pulsed laser microcutting of AZ31 magnesium alloy stents
,”
Biointerphases
9
,
029004
(
2014
).
6.
A.
Kruusing
, “
Underwater and water-assisted laser processing: Part 1—General features, steam cleaning and shock processing
,”
Opt. Lasers Eng.
41
,
307
327
(
2004
).
7.
A.
Kruusing
, “
Underwater and water-assisted laser processing: Part 2—Etching, cutting and rarely used methods
,”
Opt. Lasers Eng.
41
,
329
352
(
2004
).
8.
A.
Dupont
,
P.
Caminat
,
P.
Bournot
, and
J. P.
Gauchon
, “
Enhancement of material ablation using 248, 308, 532, 1064 nm laser pulse with a water film on the treated surface
,”
J. Appl. Phys.
78
,
2022
2028
(
1995
).
9.
H. W.
Kang
,
H.
Lee
, and
A. J.
Welch
, “
Laser ablation in a liquid-confined environment using a nanosecond laser pulse
,”
J. Appl. Phys.
103
,
083101
(
2008
).
10.
W.
Charee
,
V.
Tangwarodomnukun
, and
C.
Dumkum
, “
Laser ablation of silicon in water under different flow rates
,”
Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol.
78
,
19
29
(
2015
).
11.
L. S.
Jiao
,
E. Y. K.
Ng
,
L. M.
Wee
, and
H. Y.
Zheng
, “
The effect of assist liquid on the hole taper improvement in femtosecond laser percussion drilling
,”
Phys. Procedia
19
,
426
430
(
2011
).
12.
C.
Li
,
X.
Shi
,
J.
Si
,
T.
Chen
,
F.
Chen
,
S.
Liang
,
Z.
Wu
, and
X.
Hou
, “
Alcohol-assisted photoetching of silicon carbide with a femtosecond laser
,”
Opt. Commun.
282
,
78
80
(
2009
).
13.
L.
Li
and
C.
Achara
, “
Chemical assisted laser machining for the minimisation of recast and heat affected zone
,”
CIRP Ann. - Manuf. Technol.
53
,
175
178
(
2004
).
14.
N.
Muhammad
,
D.
Whitehead
,
A.
Boor
, and
L.
Li
, “
Comparison of dry and wet fibre laser profile cutting of thin 316L stainless steel tubes for medical device applications
,”
J. Mater. Process. Technol.
210
,
2261
2267
(
2010
).
15.
N.
Muhammad
and
L.
Li
, “
Underwater femtosecond laser micromachining of thin nitinol tubes for medical coronary stent manufacture
,”
Appl. Phys. A Mater. Sci. Process.
107
,
849
861
(
2012
).
16.
J. J.
Chang
,
B. E.
Warner
,
E. P.
Dragon
, and
M. W.
Martinez
, “
Precision micromachining with pulsed green lasers
,”
J. Laser Appl.
10
,
285
291
(
1998
).
17.
M. J.
Jackson
and
W.
O'Neill
, “
Laser micro-drilling of tool steel using Nd:YAG lasers
,”
J. Mater. Process. Technol.
142
,
517
525
(
2003
).
18.
M. R. H.
Knowles
,
G.
Rutterford
,
D.
Karnakis
, and
A.
Ferguson
, “
Micro-machining of metals, ceramics and polymers using nanosecond lasers
,”
Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol.
33
,
95
102
(
2007
).
19.
L.
Tunna
,
A.
Kearns
,
W.
O'Neill
, and
C. J.
Sutcliffe
, “
Micromachining of copper using Nd:YAG laser radiation at 1064, 532, and 355 nm wavelengths
,”
Opt. Laser Technol.
33
,
135
143
(
2001
).
20.
A. G.
Demir
and
B.
Previtali
, “
Remote cutting of Li-ion battery electrodes with infrared and green ns-pulsed fibre lasers
,”
Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol.
75
,
1557
1568
(
2014
).
21.
K.
Hock
,
B.
Adelmann
, and
R.
Hellmann
, “
Comparative study of remote fiber laser and water-jet guided laser cutting of thin metal sheets
,”
Phys. Procedia
39
,
225
231
(
2012
).
22.
J. A.
Porter
,
Y. A.
Louhisalmi
,
J. A.
Karjalainen
, and
S.
Füger
, “
Cutting thin sheet metal with a water jet guided laser using various cutting distances, feed speeds and angles of incidence
,”
Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol.
33
,
961
967
(
2007
).
23.
S.
Mullick
,
Y. K.
Madhukar
,
S.
Roy
,
S.
Kumar
,
D. K.
Shukla
, and
A. K.
Nath
, “
Development and parametric study of a water-jet assisted underwater laser cutting process
,”
Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf.
68
,
48
55
(
2013
).
24.
M. A.
Ordal
 et al., “
Optical properties of Al, Fe, Ti, Ta, W, and Mo at submillimeter wavelengths
,”
Appl. Opt.
27
,
1203
1209
(
1988
).
25.
M.
Fox
,
Optical Properties of Solids
(
Oxford University Press
,
New York, USA
,
2001
).
26.
D.
Eliezer
and
H.
Alves
, “
Corrosion and oxidation of magnesium alloys
,”
Handbook of Materials Selection
, edited by
M.
Kutz
(
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
,
New York
,
2002
), pp.
267
291
.
27.
ChemSpider, Royal Society of Chemistry, http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.144624.html (last accessed November 11,
2014
).
28.
P. K.
Kennedy
,
D. X.
Hammer
, and
B. A.
Rockwell
, “
Laser-induced breakdown in aqueous media
,”
Prog. Quantum Electron
21
,
155
248
(
1997
).
You do not currently have access to this content.