By Dirk Herzog, Matthias Schmidt-Lehr_, Marten Canisius, Max Oberlander, Jan-Philipp Tasche and Claus Emmelmann

Today, industrial usage of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) is steadily increasing, with an amount of 67,000 t/year. Latest products such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 in the aerospace sector, as well as the BMW i3 from the automotive industry, consist of more than 50 percent of CFRP in their structural weight. At the same time these products also have comparatively high production volumes, in the five-digit range per year in the case of the BMW i3. Therefore, a higher degree in automation and cost-efficiency is needed in production. Due to the highly abrasive carbon fibers, conventional machining processes result in short tool life and high costs.

For that reason laser cutting of CFRP as a wear-free alternative has become the focus of several research groups. Two different approaches are commonly chosen: Cutting by short- and ultra-short pulsed laser systems to reach a process regime of cold ablation, and cutting with continuous wave (cw) lasers at high cutting speeds. For the latter approach, it has already been shown that by increasing power and cutting speed, the heat affected zone (HAZ) can be reduced due to less time allowed for heat conduction. Continue reading →