A Comparison in Laser Precision Drilling of Stainless Steel 304 with Nanosecond and Picosecond Laser Pulses

摘要

Precision drilling with picosecond laser has been advocated to significantly improve the quality of micro-holes with reduced recast layer thickness and almost no heat affected zone. However, a detailed comparison between nanosecond and picosecond laser drilling techniques has rarely been reported in previous research. In the present study, a series of micro-holes are manufactured on stainless steel 304 using a nanosecond and a picosecond laser drilling system, respectively. The quality of the micro-holes, e.g., recast layer, micro-crack, circularity, and conicity, etc, is evaluated by employing an optical microscope, an optical interferometer, and a scanning electron microscope. Additionally, the micro-structure of the samples between the edges of the micro-holes and the parent material is compared following etching treatment. The researching results show that a great amount of spattering material accumulated at the entrance ends of the nanosecond laser drilled micro-holes. The formation of a recast layer with a thickness of~25 µm is detected on the side walls, associated with initiation of micro-cracks. Tapering phenomenon is also observed and the circularity of the micro-holes is rather poor. With regard to the micro-holes drilled by picosecond laser, the entrance ends, the exit ends, and the side walls are quite smooth without accumulation of spattering material, formation of recast layer and micro-cracks. The circularity of the micro-holes is fairly good without observation of tapering phenomenon. Furthermore, there is no obvious difference as for the micro-structure between the edges of the micro-holes and the parent material. This study proposes a picosecond laser helical drilling technique which can be used for effective manufacturing of high quality micro-holes.