Influence of Processing Gas on the Ablation Quality at ns-Laser Beam Ablation

In this paper laser beam micro ablation and drilling of metals, especially stainless steel and aluminum, with nanosecond (ns) pulses under the influence of gas are studied experimentally. Different gases are compared regarding the ablated volume, the redeposition of ablated material and the resulting accuracy of the drilled hole. With optimizing different process parameters like the scanning velocity and the scanning strategy, different holes with varying inclination angles are produced. As a result suitable process parameters for generating different hole-geometries for stainless steel and aluminum at economic costs are proposed.