New Laser Machine Tools for Processing Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP)

Abstract

The interest in laser material processing of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) over the past few years has increased, especially in the aerospace industry. A number of different laser groups around the world are investigating different laser sources for the express reason of developing a laser material processing centre for machining CFRP for the aerospace and automotive industry. This paper reports on the work of two such groups, in the UK and Germany, who are using fibre laser technology and a diode pumped solid state laser system. The initial results from the two studies are reported and show that these two very different laser systems offer processing capability with respect to machining CFRP.