APPLICATIONS IN

MATERIAL PROCESSING

Dr. N. Venkatanathan
 LASER WELDING

High-power lasers have found

applications in welding.
Pulsed ruby lasers have also been
used in welding.
Laser welding found important
application in the fields of electronics
and microelectronics
Requires precise welding of very thin
wires (as small as 10 µm ) or welding
of two thin films together.
 INTRODUCTION

Laser Beam Welding (LBW) is a modern

welding process.
It is a high energy beam process and has
many advantages like deep weld
penetration and minimizing heat inputs.
Use of laser and computers improved
the product quality through more
accurate control of welding processes.
 How it works?

The focal spot is targeted on the work piece

surface which will be welded.
At the surface the large concentration of light
energy is converted into thermal energy.
The surface of the work piece starts melting and
progresses through it by surface conductance.
For welding, the beam energy is maintained
below the vaporization temperature of the work
piece material.
The penetration of the work piece depends on
conducted heat. Therefore the thickness of the
materials to be welded is generally less than 0.80
inches.
The role of focusing lenses in this process is it
concentrates the beam energy into a focal spot as
small as 0.005 inches diameters or even less.
Concentrated energy produces melting and joining of
two bodies.
The fatigue strength of the welded joint will be
excellent. So welding is in pure form.
Laser weld can easily performed between two
dissimilar metals.
Thus, a thermocouple may easily be welded
to a substrate without much damage to
adjacent materials.
One can indeed simultaneously form the
junction and attach the junction to the
substrate.
This method has been used in attaching
measuring probes to transistors, turbine
blades, etc.
Laser welds not only achieves welding
between dissimilar metal but also allow
precise location of the weld.
The Nd-YAG lasers and CO2 lasers are
the two important kinds of lasers that
find-wide ranging applications in
welding.
In welding, materials are added to join the
two components.
Thus the laser power must not be too high to
evaporate the material.
Removal of material leads, in general, to bad
weld.
Thus the laser used in welding process must
have a high average power rather than high
peak power.
 Examples for LASER Welding

A weld of ¼ inch thick stainless steel can be carried out

by CO2 laser having an output power of 3.5 KW. The
material was moved at a speed of 2 cm/sec in the focal
plane of the lens of focal length of 25 cm.
Pulsed ruby beam having energy of 5 J with pulse length
of about 5 nanosecond was used in welding 0.18 mm
thick stainless steel.
The weld was made using overlapping spots and the laser
was pulsed at the rate of 20 pulses per minutes. The
focused spots was about 1 mm in diameter and the
associated power density was ≈6 × 105 W/cm2
Laser offers some unique advantages, requires
extremely short time for the laser welding process.
Welding can be done in the region adjacent to the
heat-sensitive areas with out affecting these
elements.
Furthermore, welding in otherwise inaccessible
areas can also be done using a laser beam.
In welding of two wires, one may have a effective
weld even without the removal of insulation.
 Most Popular types of LBW

Nd:YAG (neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnet)

Laser: Produces light with a 1.06-micron
wavelength.
Carbon Dioxide Lasers: It produces light with a
10.6-micron wavelength.
The Diode Laser: produces several wavelengths.
Industries Served: Aerospace, Defense/military,
Electronics, Research & development, Medical,
Sensors & instrumentation, Petrochemical
refining and Communications & energy.
 ADVANTAGES

Deep and narrow welds can be done.

Absence of distortion in welds.
Minimal heat affected zones in welds created.
Excellent metallurgical quality will be
established in welds.
Ability to weld smaller, thinner components.
Increased travel speeds.
 HOLE DRILLING

Drilling of holes in various substances is

another interesting application of the laser.
Drilling holes less than about 250 µm in
diameter by using metal bits becomes very
difficult and is also accompanied by frequent
breakage of drill bits.
With lasers one can easily drill holes as small
as 10 µm through the hardest of substances.
The Swiss watch industry has been using flash-
pumped neodymium-YAG lasers to drill ruby stones
used in timepieces.
So laser ensures that the absence of problem like drill
breakage.
Laser hole drilling has the advantage of precise
location of the hole.
A laser pulse having a pulse width of about 1/1000 of
a second and an energy of approximately 0.05J can
burn through a 1-mm thick steel plate leaving behind
a hole of radius ≈ 0.1 mm.
 LASER CUTTING
Laser cutting is an advantageous technology choice.
The most common laser that is used in cutting
process is the CO2 laser due to its high output
power.
In the cutting process, one essentially removes the
material along the cut.
Using pulsed lasers, the repetition frequency of the
pulse and the motion of the laser across the material
is adjusted so that a series of partially overlapping
holes are produced.
The width of the cut should be as small as possible
and it should avoid any re-welding of the cut
material.
The efficiency of the laser cutting can be increased
by making use of gas jet coaxial with the laser.
In some cases, one uses a highly reactive gas like
oxygen so that when the laser heats up the material,
it interacts with the gas and gets burnt.
The gas jet also helps in expelling the molten
material.
Such a method has been used to cut the
materials like stainless steel, low-carbon steel,
titanium etc.
For e.g., a 0.13 cm thick stainless steel plate was
cut at the rate of 0.8 m per minute using a 190
watt CO2 laser using oxygen jet.
In some methods, one uses inert gases in the
place of oxygen.
Such a gas jet helps in expelling the molten
material.
Such a technique would be very efficient with
materials which absorb most radiation at the
laser wavelength.
Wood, paper, plastic, etc. have been cut using
this method.
A gas jet assisted CO2 laser can be used for
obtaining parallel cuts of up to 50 mm depth in
wood products.
At the cut edges carbonization occurs, but it is
usually limited to a small depth of the material.
This causes a discoloration only and can be
decreased by increasing the cutting speed.
Laser cutting of stainless steel, nickel alloys
and other materials finds widespread
application in the aircraft and automobile
industry.
It has been recently tested and shown that
aluminum sheet metal can be efficiently cut
with high-powered laser beam.
In fact, it is believed that it could be as
much as 60% to 70% less expensive than the
conventional techniques.
Laser cutting has also been used in the
textile industry for cutting cloth.
It is even claimed that this is the greatest
advance in apparel manufacturing since the
sewing machine.
 Advantages

Reduction of total work times

Increase in production quality.
It is precise, clean and silent.
The beam can be focalized on an
extremely small area (from 0.1 to 1mm
in diameter).
The area in proximity to the cut edge
has a very low heat alteration.
Moreover, the laser cut has the capacity of operating
on complex profiles and with very small rays of
curvature.
Unlike water and traditional cutting systems, light
exerts no mechanical pressure on the piece.
Absence of wear in the instrument.
Cutting capability independent of hardness of the
material.
Has the capability to cut coated or surface treated
materials.
Ease of integration with other automated
systems
Very high trimming capability
Capability of adapting immediately to
changes in production requirements.
In many cases, laser cutting can produce
finished pieces that do not require further
processing (polishing, de-burring, finishing
etc.).
 Laser Ablation

Laser ablation is the process of

removing material from a solid (or
occasionally liquid) surface by
irradiating it with a laser beam.
At low laser flux, the material is
heated by the absorbed laser energy
and evaporates or sublimates.
At high laser flux, the material is
typically converted to a plasma.
Usually, laser ablation refers to removing
material with a pulsed laser.
But it is possible to ablate material with a
continuous wave laser beam if the laser
intensity is high enough.
The amount of material removed by a single
pulse is depending on the depth over which the
laser energy is absorbed.
The absorption of laser energy depends on the
material's optical properties and the laser
wavelength.
Laser pulses can vary over a very wide range of
duration from milliseconds to femtoseconds.
The laser fluxes can be precisely controlled.
This makes laser ablation very valuable for both
research and industrial applications.
The simplest application of laser ablation is to
remove material from a solid surface in a
controlled fashion.
Laser drilling is good example.
Pulsed lasers can drill extremely small,
deep holes through very hard materials.
Very short laser pulses remove material
so quickly that the surrounding material
absorbs very little heat.
Laser drilling can be done on delicate or
heat-sensitive materials, including tooth
enamel which called as laser dentistry.
Laser energy can be selectively absorbed by
coatings, particularly on metal.
So CO2 or Nd:YAG pulsed lasers can be used
to clean surfaces.
Removal of paint or coating, or prepare
surfaces for painting without damaging the
underlying surface.
High power lasers clean a large spot with a
single pulse.
Lower power lasers use many small pulses
which may be scanned across an area.
 ADVANTAGES

No solvents are used, so it is environmentally friendly

and operators are not exposed to chemicals.
It is relatively easy to automate, e.g., by using robots.
The running costs are lower than dry media or CO2 ice
blasting, although the capital investment costs are
much higher.
The process is gentler than abrasive techniques, e.g.
carbon fibres within a composite material are not
damaged.
Heating of the target is minimal.
 High level Applications

To process the material removed into new forms either

not possible or difficult to produce by other means.
A recent example is the production of carbon nano
tubes.
To create coatings by ablating the coating material from
a source and letting it deposit on the surface to be
coated, called special type of physical vapor deposition.
Can create coatings from materials that cannot readily
be evaporated any other way.
This process is used to manufacture some types of high
temperature superconductor.
Remote laser spectroscopy uses laser ablation to
create a plasma from the surface material.
The composition of the surface can be determined by
analyzing the wavelengths of light emitted by the
plasma.
Finally, laser ablation can be used to transfer
momentum to a surface.
The ablated material applies a pulse of high pressure
to the surface underneath it as it expands.
The effect is similar to hitting the surface with a
hammer.
This process is used in industry to harden
metal surfaces.
Used as a damage mechanism for a laser
weapon.
It is also the basis of pulsed laser
propulsion for spacecraft.
Laser ablation has biological applications
and can be used to destroy nerves and other
tissues.
 Medical Applications
Used to remove part of biological tissue.
Surface ablation in the skin (also called
resurfacing, because it induces regeneration)
can be carried out by lasers.
Its purpose is to remove skin spots, aged skin,
wrinkles, thus rejuvenating it.
Surface ablation is also employed in the ENT
treatment.
For several kinds of surgery, such as for
snoring.
Ablation therapy using radiofrequency waves
on the heart is used to cure a various of cardiac.
It is a process by which the molecular bonds of
a material are dissolved by a laser.
For a laser to be able to ablate tissues, the
power density has to be very high.
Otherwise thermo-coagulation will happen,
which is just a thermal vaporization of the
tissues.
Roto-ablation is a type of arterial cleansing
that consists of inserting a tiny, diamond-
tipped, drill-like device into the affected artery
to remove fatty deposits .
The procedure is used in the treatment of
coronary heart disease to restore blood flow.
Bone marrow ablation is a process whereby the
human bone marrow cells are eliminated in
preparation for a bone marrow transplant.
Ablation of brain tissue is used for treating
certain neurological disorders like
Parkinson’s disease and some time
psychiatric disorders.
Recently, some researchers reported
successful results with genetic ablation.
In particular, genetic ablation is potentially a
much more efficient method of removing
unwanted cells, such as tumor cells.
Laser ablation is greatly affected by the nature of the
material and its ability to absorb energy.
Therefore the wavelength of the ablation laser should
have a minimum absorption depth.
Surface ablation of the cornea for several types of eye
refractive surgery is now common, using an excimer
laser system (LASIK and LASEK).
Since the cornea does not grow back, laser is used to
remodel the cornea refractive properties, in order to
correct refraction errors, such as astigmatism, myopia
and hyperopia.