Study on Diode Laser for Materials Processing

• Main Authors: Jhih-wei Shih, 施智偉
• Other Authors: Yih-Fong Tzeng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/68985108971377405470

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 機械與自動化工程研究所 === 99 === A Diode laser is a kind of small solid-state laser with coupling long life. It has good characteristics of high photoelectric conversion and couples optical fiber to manufacture in material processing. Because output power was only milliwatts or less than a few watts in the early days, the range of applications was mostly in the optoelectronic and biomedical fields. In recent years, technological advances have led to diode array development and the application of diode laser power has increased to tens of watts, allowing the diode laser to branch out into the field of industrial manufacturing. The kilowatts of ultra-high power diode lasers also have long been available, making the ability to process high-profile become prominent. This paper uses a diode laser of wavelength λ = 988nm, with a maximum output power of 200W. The 988nm wavelength is suitable for the laser transmission to process plastics, while 200W output of power is enough to process sheet metals. In order to understand diode laser processing capacity, we use experiment material of 304 stainless steel, 64 titanium alloy and PMMA polymers, to explore a wider range of processing capacity from diode laser. Experiment results show a thickness of 3mm or less of the 304 stainless steel can be successfully welded with full penetration. The same result is observed with the 64 titanium. As for the PMMA, diode laser show the high material removal rate from black PMMA when using the parameter conditions P/V = 0.3 that can remove depth of material to 1.5mm or more. The effects of the color of PMMA on laser transmission welding are also investigated. The experimental results show that white PMMA is not suitable for laser transmission welding. The proper range of the laser machining conditions for the red, yellow and blue PMMA are P/V = 0.3~0.5, 0.29~0.67 and 0.21 to 0.50, of which the blue PMMA has the minimum P/V implying the processing costs is the lowest. Diode laser for processing the selective metal and plastic materials shows important results and processing parameters, and it can be optimized in the future development and application process.