LASER ROUGH AND FINISH MACHINING OF HARD MATERIALS

摘要

A method of laser machining hard materialworkpieces comprises the steps of applying a high energy,short duration laser pulse to a succession of spots on thesurface of a workpiece, the duration, wavelength, and energyand of each laser pulse being such that said energy issubstantially completely consumed in vaporizing a controlledquantity of material from the surface of the workpiece, thevaporized material creating a plasma cloud over each spot,each successive spot being sufficiently displaced from theprevious spot to minimize the effect of the plasma cloudthereon, and the spots eventually overlapping so as to coverthe whole of a desired area to be machined. In this way,hard materials such as ceramics can be machined to highprecision with minimal formation of microcracks.