Development of a Water-Jet Assisted Underwater Laser Cutting Process
We present the development of a new underwater laser
cutting process in which a water-jet has been used along with the
laser beam to remove the molten material through kerf. The
conventional underwater laser cutting usually utilizes a high pressure
gas jet along with laser beam to create a dry condition in the cutting
zone and also to eject out the molten material. This causes a lot of gas
bubbles and turbulence in water, and produces aerosols and waste
gas. This may cause contamination in the surrounding atmosphere
while cutting radioactive components like burnt nuclear fuel. The
water-jet assisted underwater laser cutting process produces much
less turbulence and aerosols in the atmosphere. Some amount of
water vapor bubbles is formed at the laser-metal-water interface;
however, they tend to condense as they rise up through the
surrounding water. We present the design and development of a
water-jet assisted underwater laser cutting head and the parametric
study of the cutting of AISI 304 stainless steel sheets with a 2 kW
CW fiber laser. The cutting performance is similar to that of the gas
assist laser cutting; however, the process efficiency is reduced due to
heat convection by water-jet and laser beam scattering by vapor. This
process may be attractive for underwater cutting of nuclear reactor
components.
[1] J. Lu, R. Q. Xu, X. Chen, Z. H. Shen, X. W. Ni, Mechanism of laser
drilling of metal plates underwater, J. Appl. Phys., 95(8) (2004) 3890-
3894.
[2] Chwan-Huei Tsai, Chang-Cheng Li, Investigation of underwater laser
drilling for brittle substrates, J. Mater. Process. Tech., 209 (2009) 2838-
2846.
[3] Y. Yan, L. Li, K. Sezer, W. Wang, D. Whitehead, L Ji, Y Baob, Y.
Jiang, CO2 laser underwater machining of deep cavities in alumina, J.
Eur. Ceram. Soc., 31 (2011) 2793-2807.
[4] K.L. Choo, Y. Ogawa, G. Kanbargi, V. Otra, L.M. Raff, R. Komanduri,
Micromachining of silicon by short-pulse laser ablation in air and under
water, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 372 (2004) 145-162.
[5] A. K. Das, P. Saha, Excimer Laser Micromachining of Silicon in Air
and Water Medium, Int. J. Manuf. Tech. Manag., 21(1-2) (2010) 42-53.
[6] L. M. Wee, E. Y. K. Ng, A. H. Prathama , H. Zheng, Micro-machining
of silicon wafer in air and underwater, Opt. Laser. Technol., 43 (2011)
62-71.
[7] J.J.J. Kaakkunen, M. Silvennoinen, K. Paivasaari, P. Vahimaa, Water-
Assisted Femtosecond Laser Pulse Ablation of High Aspect Ratio Holes,
Physics Procedia, 12 (2011) 89-93.
[8] L.M. Wee, L. E. Khoong, C.W. Tan, and G. C. Lim, Solvent-Assisted
Laser Drilling of Silicon Carbide, Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol., 8 [6]
(2011)1263-1276.
[9] L. S. Jiao, E. Y. K. Ng , L. M. Wee, and H. Y. Zheng, The effect of
assist liquid on the hole taper improvement in femtosecond laser
percussion drilling, Physics Procedia, 19 (2011) 426-430.
[10] C. S. Montross, T. Wei, L. Ye, G. Clark, Y. W. Mai, Laser shock
processing and its effects on microstructure and properties of metals: a
review, Int. J. of fatigue, 24 (2002) 1021-1036.
[11] N. Muhammad, D. Whitehead, A. Boor, L. Li, Comparison of dry and
wet fibre laser profile cutting of thin 316L stainless steel tubes for
(a)
(b)
medical device applications, J. Mater. Process. Tech., 210 (2010) 2261-
2267.
[12] N. Muhammad, L. Li, Underwater femtosecond laser micromachining
of thin nitinol tubes for medical coronary stent manufacture, Appl. Phys.
A, 107 (2012) 849-861.
[13] B. Richerzhagen, R. Housh, F. Wagner, and J. Manley, Water jet guided
laser cutting: a powerful hybrid technology for fine cutting and
grooving, in Proceedings of the 2004 Advanced Laser Applications
Conference and Exposition, D. Roessler and N. Uddin, eds. (ALAC,
2004), pp. 175-181.
[14] T. Levesqure, D. Perrottet, B. Richerzhagen, Damage-free cutting of
medical devices using the water-jet-guided laser, Medical Devices
Materials-III, ed. By Ramakroshna Venugopalanand Ming Wu, Proc.
Materials and Processes for Medical Devices Conf., Nov. 14-16, 2005,
Boston, Mass. USA.
[15] J. A. Porter, Y. A. Louhisalmi, J. A. Karjalainen, S. F├╝ger, Cutting thin
sheet metal with a water jet guided laser using various cutting distances,
feed speeds and angles of incidence, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., 33
(2007) 961-967.
[16] V. Tangwarodomnukun, J. Wang, C.Z. Huang, H.T. Zhu, An
investigaton of hybrid laser-waterjet ablation of silicon substrate, Int. j.
Mach. Tool. Manu., 56 (2012) 39-49.
[17] I. Chida, K. Okazaki, S. Shima, K. Kurihara,Y. Yuguchi, I. Sato,
Underwater cutting technology of thick stainless steel with YAG laser,
Proc. SPIE 4831 (453) (2003), http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.497715.
[18] R. K. Jain, D. K. Agrawal, S. C. Vishwakarma, A. K. Choubey, B. N.
Upadhyaya and S. M. Oak, Development of underwater laser cutting
technique for steel and zircaloy for nuclear applications, Pramana, 75
(6) (2010) 1253-1258.
[19] T. Hino, M. Tamura, Y. Tanaka, W. Kouno, Y. Makino, S. Kawano,
and K. Matsunaga, Development of Underwater Laser Cladding and
Underwater Laser Seal Welding Techniques for Reactor Components, J.
Power and Energy Systems, 3 (1) (2009) 51-59.
[20] A. Kruusing, Underwater and water-assisted laser processing:Part 2ÔÇö
Etching, cutting and rarely used methods, Opt. Laser Eng., 41(2) (2004)
329-352.
[21] J. A. Curcio and C. C. Petty, The Near Infrared Absorption Spectrum of
Liquid Water, J. Opt. Soc. Am., 41(5) (1951) 302-304.
[22] S. Mullick, Y. K. Madhukar, S. Kumar, D. K. Shukla, and A. K. Nath,
Temperature and intensity dependence of Yb-fiber laser light absorption
in water, Appl. Opt., 50(34) (2011) 6319-6326.
[23] Y. K. Madhukar, S. Mullick, D. K. Shukla, S. Kumar, A. K. Nath,
Effect of laser operating mode in paint removal with a fiber laser, Appl.
Surf. Sci., 264 (2013) 892- 901.
[24] W. M. Steen and J. Mazumder, Laser Material Processing, 4th edition,
Springer - Verlag London 2010, pp156-161.
[25] L. D. Scintilla, L. Tricarico, A. Wetzig, A. Mahrle, E. Beyer, Primary
losses in disk and CO2 laser beam inert gas fusion cutting, J. Mate.
Process. Tech., 211 (2011) 2050-2061.
[26] A. Bharti, R Sivakumar, The mechanism of laser removal in laser fusion
cutting, Laser Eng., 5(2) (1996) 87-105.
[27] R. Poprawe, W. König, Modeling, Monitoring and Control in High
Quality Laser Cutting, CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 50(1)
(2001) 137-140.
[28] R. Poprawe, W. Schulz, R. Schmitt, Hydrodynamics of material removal
by melt expulsion: Prospectives of laser cutting and drilling, Physics
Procedia5 (2010) 1-18.
[29] L. D. Scintilla, L.Tricarico , Estimating cutting front temperature
difference in disk and CO2 laser beam fusion cutting, Opt. Laser
Technol., 44 (2012) 1468-1479.
[30] L. D. Scintilla, L.Tricarico, Experimental investigation on fiber and
CO2 inert gas fusion cutting of AZ31magnesium alloy sheets, Opt.
Laser Technol., 46 (2012) 42-52.
[31] A. Mahrle and E. Beyer, Theoretical aspects of fibre laser cutting, J.
Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 42 (2009) 175507 (9pp).
[32] K. Abdel Ghany, M. Newishy, Cutting of 1.2 mm thick austenitic
stainless steel sheet using pulsed and CW Nd:YAG laser, J. Mate.
Process. Tech., 168 (2005) 438-447.
[1] J. Lu, R. Q. Xu, X. Chen, Z. H. Shen, X. W. Ni, Mechanism of laser
drilling of metal plates underwater, J. Appl. Phys., 95(8) (2004) 3890-
3894.
[2] Chwan-Huei Tsai, Chang-Cheng Li, Investigation of underwater laser
drilling for brittle substrates, J. Mater. Process. Tech., 209 (2009) 2838-
2846.
[3] Y. Yan, L. Li, K. Sezer, W. Wang, D. Whitehead, L Ji, Y Baob, Y.
Jiang, CO2 laser underwater machining of deep cavities in alumina, J.
Eur. Ceram. Soc., 31 (2011) 2793-2807.
[4] K.L. Choo, Y. Ogawa, G. Kanbargi, V. Otra, L.M. Raff, R. Komanduri,
Micromachining of silicon by short-pulse laser ablation in air and under
water, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 372 (2004) 145-162.
[5] A. K. Das, P. Saha, Excimer Laser Micromachining of Silicon in Air
and Water Medium, Int. J. Manuf. Tech. Manag., 21(1-2) (2010) 42-53.
[6] L. M. Wee, E. Y. K. Ng, A. H. Prathama , H. Zheng, Micro-machining
of silicon wafer in air and underwater, Opt. Laser. Technol., 43 (2011)
62-71.
[7] J.J.J. Kaakkunen, M. Silvennoinen, K. Paivasaari, P. Vahimaa, Water-
Assisted Femtosecond Laser Pulse Ablation of High Aspect Ratio Holes,
Physics Procedia, 12 (2011) 89-93.
[8] L.M. Wee, L. E. Khoong, C.W. Tan, and G. C. Lim, Solvent-Assisted
Laser Drilling of Silicon Carbide, Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol., 8 [6]
(2011)1263-1276.
[9] L. S. Jiao, E. Y. K. Ng , L. M. Wee, and H. Y. Zheng, The effect of
assist liquid on the hole taper improvement in femtosecond laser
percussion drilling, Physics Procedia, 19 (2011) 426-430.
[10] C. S. Montross, T. Wei, L. Ye, G. Clark, Y. W. Mai, Laser shock
processing and its effects on microstructure and properties of metals: a
review, Int. J. of fatigue, 24 (2002) 1021-1036.
[11] N. Muhammad, D. Whitehead, A. Boor, L. Li, Comparison of dry and
wet fibre laser profile cutting of thin 316L stainless steel tubes for
(a)
(b)
medical device applications, J. Mater. Process. Tech., 210 (2010) 2261-
2267.
[12] N. Muhammad, L. Li, Underwater femtosecond laser micromachining
of thin nitinol tubes for medical coronary stent manufacture, Appl. Phys.
A, 107 (2012) 849-861.
[13] B. Richerzhagen, R. Housh, F. Wagner, and J. Manley, Water jet guided
laser cutting: a powerful hybrid technology for fine cutting and
grooving, in Proceedings of the 2004 Advanced Laser Applications
Conference and Exposition, D. Roessler and N. Uddin, eds. (ALAC,
2004), pp. 175-181.
[14] T. Levesqure, D. Perrottet, B. Richerzhagen, Damage-free cutting of
medical devices using the water-jet-guided laser, Medical Devices
Materials-III, ed. By Ramakroshna Venugopalanand Ming Wu, Proc.
Materials and Processes for Medical Devices Conf., Nov. 14-16, 2005,
Boston, Mass. USA.
[15] J. A. Porter, Y. A. Louhisalmi, J. A. Karjalainen, S. F├╝ger, Cutting thin
sheet metal with a water jet guided laser using various cutting distances,
feed speeds and angles of incidence, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., 33
(2007) 961-967.
[16] V. Tangwarodomnukun, J. Wang, C.Z. Huang, H.T. Zhu, An
investigaton of hybrid laser-waterjet ablation of silicon substrate, Int. j.
Mach. Tool. Manu., 56 (2012) 39-49.
[17] I. Chida, K. Okazaki, S. Shima, K. Kurihara,Y. Yuguchi, I. Sato,
Underwater cutting technology of thick stainless steel with YAG laser,
Proc. SPIE 4831 (453) (2003), http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.497715.
[18] R. K. Jain, D. K. Agrawal, S. C. Vishwakarma, A. K. Choubey, B. N.
Upadhyaya and S. M. Oak, Development of underwater laser cutting
technique for steel and zircaloy for nuclear applications, Pramana, 75
(6) (2010) 1253-1258.
[19] T. Hino, M. Tamura, Y. Tanaka, W. Kouno, Y. Makino, S. Kawano,
and K. Matsunaga, Development of Underwater Laser Cladding and
Underwater Laser Seal Welding Techniques for Reactor Components, J.
Power and Energy Systems, 3 (1) (2009) 51-59.
[20] A. Kruusing, Underwater and water-assisted laser processing:Part 2ÔÇö
Etching, cutting and rarely used methods, Opt. Laser Eng., 41(2) (2004)
329-352.
[21] J. A. Curcio and C. C. Petty, The Near Infrared Absorption Spectrum of
Liquid Water, J. Opt. Soc. Am., 41(5) (1951) 302-304.
[22] S. Mullick, Y. K. Madhukar, S. Kumar, D. K. Shukla, and A. K. Nath,
Temperature and intensity dependence of Yb-fiber laser light absorption
in water, Appl. Opt., 50(34) (2011) 6319-6326.
[23] Y. K. Madhukar, S. Mullick, D. K. Shukla, S. Kumar, A. K. Nath,
Effect of laser operating mode in paint removal with a fiber laser, Appl.
Surf. Sci., 264 (2013) 892- 901.
[24] W. M. Steen and J. Mazumder, Laser Material Processing, 4th edition,
Springer - Verlag London 2010, pp156-161.
[25] L. D. Scintilla, L. Tricarico, A. Wetzig, A. Mahrle, E. Beyer, Primary
losses in disk and CO2 laser beam inert gas fusion cutting, J. Mate.
Process. Tech., 211 (2011) 2050-2061.
[26] A. Bharti, R Sivakumar, The mechanism of laser removal in laser fusion
cutting, Laser Eng., 5(2) (1996) 87-105.
[27] R. Poprawe, W. König, Modeling, Monitoring and Control in High
Quality Laser Cutting, CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology, 50(1)
(2001) 137-140.
[28] R. Poprawe, W. Schulz, R. Schmitt, Hydrodynamics of material removal
by melt expulsion: Prospectives of laser cutting and drilling, Physics
Procedia5 (2010) 1-18.
[29] L. D. Scintilla, L.Tricarico , Estimating cutting front temperature
difference in disk and CO2 laser beam fusion cutting, Opt. Laser
Technol., 44 (2012) 1468-1479.
[30] L. D. Scintilla, L.Tricarico, Experimental investigation on fiber and
CO2 inert gas fusion cutting of AZ31magnesium alloy sheets, Opt.
Laser Technol., 46 (2012) 42-52.
[31] A. Mahrle and E. Beyer, Theoretical aspects of fibre laser cutting, J.
Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 42 (2009) 175507 (9pp).
[32] K. Abdel Ghany, M. Newishy, Cutting of 1.2 mm thick austenitic
stainless steel sheet using pulsed and CW Nd:YAG laser, J. Mate.
Process. Tech., 168 (2005) 438-447.
@article{"International Journal of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Sciences:49764", author = "Suvradip Mullick and Yuvraj K. Madhukar and Subhranshu Roy and Ashish K. Nath", title = "Development of a Water-Jet Assisted Underwater Laser Cutting Process", abstract = "We present the development of a new underwater laser
cutting process in which a water-jet has been used along with the
laser beam to remove the molten material through kerf. The
conventional underwater laser cutting usually utilizes a high pressure
gas jet along with laser beam to create a dry condition in the cutting
zone and also to eject out the molten material. This causes a lot of gas
bubbles and turbulence in water, and produces aerosols and waste
gas. This may cause contamination in the surrounding atmosphere
while cutting radioactive components like burnt nuclear fuel. The
water-jet assisted underwater laser cutting process produces much
less turbulence and aerosols in the atmosphere. Some amount of
water vapor bubbles is formed at the laser-metal-water interface;
however, they tend to condense as they rise up through the
surrounding water. We present the design and development of a
water-jet assisted underwater laser cutting head and the parametric
study of the cutting of AISI 304 stainless steel sheets with a 2 kW
CW fiber laser. The cutting performance is similar to that of the gas
assist laser cutting; however, the process efficiency is reduced due to
heat convection by water-jet and laser beam scattering by vapor. This
process may be attractive for underwater cutting of nuclear reactor
components.", keywords = "Laser, underwater cutting, water-jet.", volume = "7", number = "4", pages = "526-7", }
