Geometric quality aspects of Nd:YAG laser drilling holes

The purpose of this study was to relate Nd:YAG laser parameters of energy, pulse width and frequency to the geometric quality of the laser percussion drilled holes in high carbon steel. Analysis was made in this study of the external geometric features of the holes using a vision system and derived from these was the internal feature of hole taper. These experiments have shown that it was possible to determine relationships between beam parameters and the resulting quality aspects of laser drilled holes in this material. Generally, better quality holes were produced at low energy values, low pulse widths, low peak powers and high frequencies. It was hoped that the findings here would help to further the understanding of how exotic nimonic alloys may similarly react to the drilling process.