Background Carbon Dioxide Laser Etch Drilling Of Mild Steel.

1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The micro-machining manufacturing for use in the electronic and mechanical devices is a well-established industry. Early process of technology relied on the production of micro- components from semiconductors and thin metal films through the use of large batch production techniques that were originally developed especially for the use in the micro- electronics industry purposes. Nowadays, laser micromachining had rapidly become a routine method in fabricating mass produced parts, as well as manufacturing intricately designed components for specialized applications. Laser micromachining is now a commonplace in the component of manufacturing sector, for instance supplying industries that demand on high precision dimension such as aerospace, automotive, biomedical, and electronics industries. Laser micro-machining is used to produce a very small parts or very small features in parts. It is more or less similar to cutting and drilling method, but on a very small scale. Components which are small as a few microns can be manufactured by using a very high peak power short pulses and low average power. The resolution of the features produced is proportional to the wavelength used and the beam quality. Materials that can be micro-machined with lasers include metals, ceramics, plastics, glass, laminates and composites. Techniques and methods have highly developed and improved sufficiently due to increasingly diverse range of micro-structures that can be 2 used as components for micro-systems. Two process methods commonly used for the fabrication of high aspect-ratio micro-structures are based on direct micro-machining with a frequency CO 2 carbon dioxide laser and Nd: YAG neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser using nanosecond pulse widths. CO 2 lasers are an excellent alternative to the traditional methods of engraving or marking metal process. CO 2 laser marking has substantial advantages against Nd: YAG laser marking in terms of speed, and the cost of maintenance. Etching or marking metal with CO 2 lasers provides many advantages over etching, engraving, and marking with contact implements like scribers or manual laser laden process like electro chemical etching [1].

1.2 Problem Statements