Study on green picosecond laser machining quality of carbon fiber reinforced polymers

This paper uses an ultrafast laser with a wavelength of 532nm and a pulse width of 10ps to conduct cutting process experiments on typical grades of CFRP materials in the aerospace manufacturing field, such as high-modulus CFRP and high-strength CFRP. After optimizing laser parameters and processing paths, a high-quality processing effect with minimal heat affected zone was obtained, and the fracture morphology characteristics and mechanical properties of the processed specimens were studied. The results indicate that under the laser wavelength, pulse width, and processing parameters selected in this paper, the morphology of the cut edge of typical CFRP materials was observed without visible heat affected zone through 200x optical microscope magnification, and the processed section was bright and burr-free, the fiber bundle section was neat, and the resin section was smooth through 2000x scanning electron microscope observation. Through the mechanical tensile testing, compared the ultrafast laser processed tensile specimens with the traditional mechanical cutting and punching tensile specimens, the ultrafast laser processed specimens of many typical grades of CFRP materials all have higher tensile mechanical properties, which also proves that the ultrafast laser pulse width and wave band used for CFRP materials have excellent processing quality, and are suitable for promotion and application in the aerospace manufacturing field. Finally, this paper introduces the typical applications of ultrafast laser processing CFRP in aerospace products.