AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF INCLINED HOLES CREATED BY Nd:YAG LASER BEAM PERCUSSION DRILLING ON FRP-BASED MATERIALS UTILIZING OPAT METHODS

In recent years, fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) materials like glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) are next-generation polymer-based composite materials tailored for lightweight engineering applications in aerospace, marine, chemical, and automotive industries. Applying inclined holes in GFRP material is essentially used in producing robotic parts, microelectronics components, wind turbine blades, etc. The bending actuators and microhinges of microrobots constructed from CFRP materials also require inclined holes. Laser percussion drilling techniques produce a high aspect ratio of high-resolution inclined holes. The geometrical deviation of the laser-drilled hole is usually evaluated in terms of hole circularity and hole taper. No literature is available for inclined hole drilling of the above two types of FRPs using infrared (IR) laser. In this paper, the thickness of each FRP is taken as 1, 3 and 5mm, respectively. The one-parameter-at-a-time (OPAT) method was used to analyze the individual effects of laser input parameters, such as pulse current, pulse width, assist gas pressure, workpiece thickness, and incidence angle, on output performance characteristics of hole circularity at top (THC), bottom (BHC), and taper (TH) during laser percussion-inclined drilling with millisecond (ms) pulsed Nd: YAG. Pulse current of 200–225A or 275–300A does not affect THC at a zero-degree angle of incidence. A greater pulse current (300A) is produced during inclined drilling at 100∘ and 200∘. SEM/EDX investigation reveals hole surface and material composition.