Laser-Assisted Fabrication of Materials
Laser assisted fabrication involves shaping of materials using laser as a source of heat. It can be achieved by removal of materials (laser assisted cutting, drilling, etc.), deformation (bending, extrusion), joining (welding, soldering) and addition of m
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Emerging Laser Materials Processing Techniques for Future Industrial Applications L. M. Kukreja, R. Kaul, C. P. Paul, P. Ganesh and B. T. Rao
Abstract Lasers are not only the proven and indispensable tools for some of the contemporary manufacturing technologies but have the potential for providing solutions to some of the upcoming intricate problems of industrial materials processing. The ongoing research is spearheading in the direction to develop novel fabrication techniques for improving qualities of the products, possibilities to engineer integrated multi-materials and multi-functional components and enhancing economic or procedural benefits. To explore the possibilities of achieving some of these objectives, we have carried out studies on the laser rapid manufacturing of structures of different metals with control over porosity, bimetallic integration, and other technologically important mechanical characteristics, laser melting based surface processing, laser shock peening, hybrid welding, and laser profile cutting of metal sheets. The results of these studies with comprehensiveness are presented and discussed in this chapter. A brief review of their scope for the industrial acceptability and adaptability has also been presented to assess the real potential of these research areas.
10.1 Introduction When laser was invented in 1960 by Prof. Maiman, it was dubbed as a ‘solution in search of problems’. Undoubtedly, today lasers are ‘solutions for many problems’, including industrial manufacturing technology. The domain of laser based materials processing witnessed its dawn with the first experiments on drilling and welding of stainless steel blades and foils during 1963 and 1964 [1]. Followed by that, there was a spurt of interest in the applications of lasers for materials processing with L. M. Kukreja (B) · R. Kaul · C. P. Paul · P. Ganesh · B. T. Rao Laser Materials Processing Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452013, India e-mail: [email protected]
J. Dutta Majumdar and I. Manna (eds.), Laser-Assisted Fabrication of Materials, Springer Series in Materials Science 161, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-28359-8_10, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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multiple ramifications. This spurt was propelled by the invention of a variety of high power lasers such as CO2 , Nd:YAG, and Er:YAG lasers. These lasers pushed the levels of output power from milliwatts to Watts and then to kilowatts and Megawatts in different modes of operations. This was the beginning of the age of laser based industrial materials processing, which has grown over the last five decades [2–4] and continues to grow in terms of magnitude, scope, and standards of quality [5, 6]. Today, both industrial lasers and laser manufacturing technologies are already in advanced stage of their evolution. But as we witnessed over the last five decades, the needs of manufacturing technologies are insatiable; as the new developments emerge, the new problems and demands for better solutions also emerge.
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