A power ramped pulsed mode laser piercing technique for improved CO2 laser profile cutting

Laser piercing is one of the inevitable requirements of laser profile cutting process and it has a direct bearing on the quality of the laser cut profiles. We have developed a novel power ramped pulsed mode (PRPM) laser piercing technique to produce much finer pierced holes and to achieve a better control on the process parameters compared to the existing methodology based on normal pulsed mode (NPM). Experiments were carried out with both PRPM and NPM laser piercing on 1.5-mm-thick mild steel using an in-house developed high-power transverse flow continuous wave (CW)-CO2 laser. Significant improvements in the spatter, circularity of the pierced hole and reproducibility were achieved through the PRPM technique. We studied, in detail, the dynamics of processes involved in PRPM laser piercing and compared that with those of the NPM piercing.