This thesis investigates laser micromachining using a high pulse repetition frequency (high-PRF) femtosecond fibre laser. Three different types of industrial-grade metals, Stainless steel, Copper, and Aluminium are investigated. The impact of the processing parameters on material removal is studied. Finally the feasibility of the technology in three dimensional micro structuring is explored. The thesis contributes to clarify the main interaction mechanisms occurring in high-PRF femtosecond laser processing. Heat accumulation and particle shielding are identified as main material removal influencing mechanisms. As a result of heat accumulation, lowered ablation thresholds are detected for Aluminium (0.16 J/cm² at 1.02 MHz versus 0.33 J/cm² at 20 kHz) and Stainless steel (0.088 J/cm² at 1.02 MHz versus 0.11 J/cm² at 20 kHz). For the high heat conductive Copper heat accumulation is largely ruled out. Particle shielding is investigated by ultra high speed camera imaging. It is shown that the ablation plumes enlarge at the higher pulse repetition rates. A parameter study investigates material ablation. From this study, appropriate machining parameters are derived with regard to both high ablation rate and removal efficiency, and small roughness: Aluminium: 5 μm pulse spacing / 5 μJ pulse energy, Copper: 7.5 μm pulse spacing / 7 μJ pulse energy, Stainless steel: 5 μm pulse spacing / 3 μJ pulse energy. In addition experimentally and theoretically determined volume ablation rates are compared. For this, a material removal calculation model is designed. Good agreements between theoretical and experimental values are obtained by taking into account effective penetration instead of optical penetration for energy transport. A surface temperature calculation model is designed, providing useful insights into heat accumulation. Heat accumulation observed for Aluminium and Stainless Steel is confirmed by surface temperature rise, calculated based on the remaining energy. Improvement of the model by enhanced energy coupling yields surface temperatures above the melting temperature. This is conclusive to experimental observations. Finally the feasibility of the high-PRF femtosecond laser technology in micromachining is demonstrated by micro mould fabrication. Utilising these moulds, micro-fluidic plastic demonstrators are fabricated by micro-injection moulding.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:607011 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Schille, Joerge |
| Contributors | Goddard, Nicholas |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/investigation-of-micromachining-using-a-high-repetition-rate-femtosecond-fibre-laser(ce972502-531a-4947-ade9-7c90a2199be7).html |
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