Removal of spatter by chemical etching after microdrilling with high productivity fiber laser

In this work, improved productivity in titanium microdrilling is proposed with a solution that comprises of use of a fiber laser system with nanosecond pulses and the removal of generated spatter by means of chemical etching. In particular the paper is aimed at pointing out the action exerted by the chemical solution on both the melted and heat affected zones surrounding the laser drilled hole. In the experimentation, microholes with spatter are laser microdrilled on titanium making use of a nanosecond pulsed fiber laser in the condition which minimizes the drilling time. Then spatter is chemically etched with a H2SO4+HF aqueous solution. The decrease in the spatter area and the change in entrance and exit hole diameters are evaluated as a function of etching time.