Germany has developed a fast, accurate, and wear-resistant laser drilling CFRP process

Recently, scientists from the Hanover Laser Center (LZH) in Germany announced the successful development of an automated laser drilling process that can promote the processing of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). They stated that this is particularly valuable in applications such as lightweight structures and sound insulation.

Composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are excellent in lightweight structures and are also used in automotive and aircraft structures, among others. In order to simplify the processing of CFRP and sandwich materials, LZH scientists, together with Invent and KMS technology centers, have developed an innovative process with relevant system settings.

In this process, the laser beam is divided into parts by specially designed diffractive optical elements, causing it to hit multiple positions on the material and generate multiple holes simultaneously.

In an ideal scenario, this can be achieved with up to 25 partial beams of light, reducing the drilling time to 25 times the original time, with each hole lasting less than one tenth of a second, which traditional methods cannot achieve, even for larger holes.

Through this process, scientists are able to create holes with a diameter of only 1.2-0.25mm. This makes them smaller than the holes currently achieved using traditional mechanical methods in sandwich and CFRP materials. The optical mechanical device manufactured by KMS technology center can achieve high flexibility in aperture and mode without the need for tool replacement.

Laser micro drills are also very interesting in the aviation field. For example, in order to reduce aircraft noise emissions, the engine uses sound-absorbing cladding components. This type of component is usually made of CFRP or CFRP sandwich material, and then provides many small holes on a large area.

Laser micro drilling is suitable for acoustic drilling because it is non-contact and therefore has no pressure or wear. This eliminates high costs caused by drill bit wear and quality issues caused by dull drilling. In acoustic testing, project partner Invent evaluated the sound insulation performance of laser drilling sandwich panels as "very good".

The above project is called "Microdrilling of Sandwich Materials: Development of Laser Technology" (miBoS), funded by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection of Germany.

Source: OFweek