Experimental characterizations of burr deposition in Nd:YAG laser drilling: a parametric study

Laser machining on metals is based on heat effect on most occasions, so resolidified material can hardly be avoided. In laser drilling, the laser-induced burr deposition on the exit rim is one of the resolidified materials, and the amount of which directly affects the hole quality, but unfortunately it has not been especially studied in the past. The objective of this work is to study the experimental characterizations of burr deposition on different drilling conditions, to shed light upon the mechanism of burr formation in laser trepan drilling, and to minimize it under the available experimental conditions. The effects of seven processing parameters are respectively studied by single-factor experiments, and the optimum combination of parameters which yields the minimum burr is determined by the Taguchi method. The final drilling result shows that the burr deposition has largely been reduced.