Laser Processing: A Comprehensive Guide

With the manufacturing industry upgrading at an increasingly rapid pace, laser processing is no longer a novelty. From simple welding and cutting to rust removal and grinding, “integrated laser processing” that combines these processes is becoming a new trend in the industry.

What is Laser Processing?

Laser processing is a process in which a laser beam is applied to the surface of an object, causing changes in its shape or properties. Essentially, the laser transfers energy to the material being processed, causing physical or chemical changes that achieve the desired processing outcome.

Types of Laser Processing

Laser cleaning

Laser cleaning, a form of laser ablation, is a method of selectively removing layers of material from a surface using laser energy. The laser cleaning process uses photon energy to strip, vaporize, sublimate, or burn away unwanted waste without damaging the underlying bulk material.

In most laser materials processing applications, the focused beam forms a relatively small spot on the target material. Laser cleaning is no exception, although its applications are generally quite broad. Laser cleaning uses a technique called laser scanning, which rapidly guides or “scans” the laser beam along a path or over a wider area. This means the laser interacts with the target material for only a fraction of a second at a time.

Laser Marking

Laser marking is a marking method that uses a high-energy-density laser to locally irradiate a workpiece, causing the surface material to vaporize or undergo a chemical reaction that changes color, thus leaving a permanent mark. Laser marking can produce various texts, symbols, and patterns, with character sizes ranging from millimeters to micrometers, which is particularly significant for product anti-counterfeiting.

Excimer laser marking is a new technology developed in recent years, particularly suitable for marking metals. It can achieve sub-micrometer marking and has been widely used in the microelectronics industry and bioengineering.

Laser Welding

Laser welding boasts high energy density, making it particularly advantageous for welding metals with high melting points, high reflectivity, high thermal conductivity, and vastly different physical properties. Laser welding uses a laser beam with lower power than that used for cutting metal to melt the material without vaporizing it, resulting in a continuous solid structure upon cooling.

Laser Cutting

When applied to the processing of both metallic and non-metallic materials, lasers can significantly reduce processing time, lower processing costs, and improve workpiece quality. Pulsed lasers are suitable for metallic materials, while continuous lasers are suitable for non-metallic materials; the latter is an important application area of ​​laser cutting technology.

Laser Drilling

It can process micron-sized holes in materials, and is especially suitable for precision hole processing with a large depth-to-diameter ratio, such as cooling holes for aero-engine blades and spinnerets.

Key Advantages of Laser Processing

1. High Precision and High Quality：The laser beam can be focused to a micron-level spot size, enabling precise control with a CNC system. Machining accuracy can reach ±0.02mm, with narrow kerfs (typically 0.1–0.2mm), resulting in smooth, burr-free cut surfaces, suitable for processing complex shapes and microstructures.
2. Small heat-affected zone and minimal workpiece deformation: The short laser interaction time and concentrated energy limit the heat transfer area. Especially in the “cold processing” mode of ultrafast lasers (such as picosecond and femtosecond lasers), the heat-affected zone can be controlled within 10μm, preventing material cracking or performance degradation.
3. Non-Contact Machining, No Tool Wear: The laser head does not contact the workpiece, eliminating tool wear and preventing mechanical stress damage to brittle materials (such as ceramics and glass), while also reducing the risk of contamination.
4. Wide material adaptability: It can process almost all metals (including high-reflectivity copper and aluminum), non-metals (plastics, wood, ceramics), and composite materials, especially suitable for processing high-hardness, high-melting-point, and highly brittle materials (such as diamond and silicon carbide). High processing speed and efficiency
5. High processing speed and efficiency: Laser processing is fast; for example, coil laser cutting can be done continuously, eliminating the time required for single-sheet loading and positioning. In HDI board micro-hole processing, efficiency is more than 60% higher than traditional mechanical drilling.
6. High flexibility and easy automation: The laser path is program-controlled, eliminating the need to change molds, making it suitable for small-batch, multi-variety production. It is easily integrated with robots and AI vision systems to achieve intelligent and flexible manufacturing.

Conclusion

Laser processing is an extremely important and rapidly developing tool technology in modern manufacturing. It is widely used in many fields such as machinery, electronics, automobiles, aerospace, medical, textiles, packaging, jewelry, and advertising, greatly improving product quality, production efficiency, and process possibilities.