JK Laser Drilling Solution

JK Lasers' JK and eCO2 laser products are suited to all kinds of drilling applications, such as small hole, irregular shaped hole, blind hole and taper hole. Laser is used to processing holes with severe angles and drill holes on difficult-to-process materials. Once set up, it can achieve hundreds of different sizes on 3D surface.

 
Advantages of laser drilling are:
non-contact process
high precision and good consistency
accurate control on calorific value
capability of drilling small hole with high aspect ratio
easy programming and suitable for automation
fast set up and few fixtures to improve production efficiency
flexible in samples' transformation and small batches production
universality
easy beam combining
drilling different shapes at the same time
applicable to various materials

JK laser series in pulse Nd: YAG laser can drill on metal, ceramic and graphite composite material. These lasers drill by generating discontinuous pulses which can control energy, peak power and local shape. Pulse YAG laser becomes comprehensive drilling system through the control of these pulse parameters. The key of drilling by pulse YAG laser is peak power. Even pulse YAG laser of low average power can make high quality holes, because the reaction between materials relies on peak power and pulse energy, not average power.


 
Source : thescienceofacne

Percussion drilling of Nd: YAG laser
The drilling size of percussion drilling is decided by the size of laser focus. In the drilling process, there is no relative movement between laser beam and components. Suitable pulse parameter and pulse quantity can make high quality hole. It can drill holes of 25μm-100μm diameter with different limits according to different materials and thickness. Most diameters are within 300μm-600μm. The adoption of special "high-speed" drilling can promote the speed of drilling. High speed drilling is usually applied in turbine engines components, which makes laser drill in a specific and continuous position around the component, launched by motion system encoder signal. If drilling a hole needs ten pulses, high speed drilling system will revolve the component ten times and  send out a pulse for each turn. The speed is promoted by the elimination of dislocation. Percussion drilling helps to control drilling conicity and improve drilling speed by improving the reaction between laser beam and materials. Pulse shaping is programming on partial pulse shape. It can also enhance drilling quality and speed by cutting a long pulse into three or four short parts; each parts is divided by a transient laser shutdown. The last laser needs longer time to cut the crumbs in the process. Use low peak power in the beginning of pulse can avoid bell mouth of hole.

Trepan of Nd: YAG laser
Trepan needs moving system, which is completed by the relative movement between penetrated laser and components. Diameter tolerance of trepan is half of percussion drilling, which can processing custom-built taper or change section shape in depth direction. It requires good moving precision and programming capability. Trepan can also make big hole of given shapes and make complex 3D finishing.

Drilling quality on metal is determined by drilling diameter tolerance, drilling conicity, thickness of recast layer and micro-crack. Diameter tolerance of percussion drilling is generally less then +/- 50μm while that of trepan is reduced to +/- 25μm. Recast is solidification of melted metal in inner-wall of hole; thickness of recast is usually less than 100μm, which is diverse for various alloy and hole depth. The maximum drilling depth is 50mm but most are within 15mm.