LASER ABLATION MODELLING FOR CNC MACHINE TOOL APPLICATION IN MOULD MANUFACTURING

In this paper an original mathematical model of laser ablation is presented. Laser ablation optimization is quite a complex activity due to the high number of parameters involved and nowadays the most common way to set up the process, in industrial environments, is based on a “trial and error” activity. In order to reduce the set-up time, which can be very long when different materials and shapes have to be processed, a mathematical model is presented where the process parameters are related to the most important machining results such as ablated volume, temperature in work piece, resulting surface conditions. The plasma plume effects on the machining operations are considered. The comparisons between the theoretical and experimental results are finally presented.