Laser removal of PVD coatings

The removal of multi-compound protective thin PVD films for stressed industrial tools using laser ablation could enhance or replace currently used procedures. Developing a laser removal process can shorten the processing time and costs. In the first step, the laser-induced damage threshold of the thin CrAlSiN coating and the WC-Co material was measured. Nanosecond and picosecond laser pulses were used for comparison. Furthermore, the dependence of the ablated material volume and ablation depth on the fluence and the number of pulses was measured. Finally, spectral analysis of the laser plasma generated during ablation was performed.