Improvement in Hole Quality at Laser Drilling of GFRP

Abstract

This paper describes the hole quality of small diameter drilling in GFRP using two kinds of laser beam machines in order to invent a no-traditional process of drilling in printed wiring board (PWB) as no contact machining. Drilling is performed by a CO₂ laser machine and a YAG laser machines and the drilling conditions (assisting gas, output power, irradiation time, wavelength) are varied in order to assess the effect on the hole quality, especially the damage appearing at the hole wall drilled by laser machines. From these results, it is shown that the application of CO₂ laser beam is effective on smaller diameter drilling in GFRP. It is important to decrease the total laser irradiation time in order to improve the hole quality.