Effect of Laser Wavelength on Material Processing of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics

Abstract

A carbon fiber reinforced plastic [CFRP] is widely used for automobile, aircraft and so on, because of high strength, lightweight and weather resistance. It is difficult to cut a CFRP plate since it is composed of complex matrix of carbon fiber and epoxy resin. The CFRP plates were cut with nanosecond lasers at the wavelengths of 1064 and 266 nm. The ablation plumes ejected from the CFRP plates were observed with an ultra-high speed video camera during the laser irradiation. After the laser irradiation, heat affected zones (HAZs) of CFRP plates were evaluated with scanning electron microscope and Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that the ablation dynamics depended on the laser wavelength and the cutting speed for 1064 nm was higher than that for 266 nm although the HAZs for 1064 nm was larger than that for 266 nm.