An investigation of accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of laser micromachining systems

• Evaluation of the capabilities of state-of-the-art laser machining systems.
• Evaluating the capabilities of Z-module specially designed for laser texturing.
• Accuracy of mechanical axes was much better compared to that of the optical axes.
• Lower dynamics of Z-module affected positional accuracy of beam delivery system.
• Calibration of scanhead is very important, it substantially improves the accuracy.

Component technologies of laser micro machining systems are key factors affecting their overall performance. The effects of these technologies on accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility (ARR) in different implementations of such systems have to be investigated to quantify their contributions to the overall processing uncertainty, especially those with the highest impact on beam delivery sub-systems. The aim of this research was to evaluate the capabilities of state-of-the-art machining platforms that were specially designed and implemented for laser micro structuring and texturing. An empirical comparative study was conducted to quantify the effects of key component technologies on ARR of four state-of-the-art systems. In particular, the capabilities of the optical and mechanical axes were investigated when they were utilised separately or in combination for precision laser machining. Conclusions are made about the positional accuracy of the mechanical and optical axes and the importance of their proper calibration on the systems’ overall performance is discussed. It is shown that the laser machining platforms can achieve repeatability and reproducibility better than 2 μm and 6 μm, respectively.