Cutting performance of a chemical oxygen-iodine laser on aerospace and industrial materials

    Authors

    A. Kar; D. L. Carroll; W. P. Latham;J. A. Rothenflue

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Laser Appl.

    Keywords

    laser cutting; materials processing; aerospace materials; chemical; oxygen-iodine laser; COIL; OPERATION; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Optics; Physics, Applied

    Abstract

    A chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) was used for cutting aluminum, titanium, inconel and copper plates. The laser was operated with a stable resonator having an intracavity aperture to produce a circular COIL beam with very few transverse modes. The multimode focal spot diameter was calculated and measured to be approximately 0.24 mm. The new aluminum cut was of good kerf edge quality. These COIL cutting data are compared with an existing theoretical laser cutting model. Using thermophysical data for aluminum, titanium, inconel and copper, this theory agrees very well with the data. To test the versatility of the model, the effects of different assumptions are examined; different assumptions produced very little effect on model predictions at high cutting speeds and a small difference at very slow cutting speeds. Overall, the theoretical model provides good agreement with experiments for a wide variety of metals. (C) 1999 Laser Institute of America. [S1042-346X(99)00103-5].

    Journal Title

    Journal of Laser Applications

    Volume

    11

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-1999

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    119

    Last Page

    127

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000082934900003

    ISSN

    1042-346X

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