Nauka i Tehnika (Aug 2014)
APPLICATION OF PULSE-PERIODICAL MODE FOR IMPROVEMENT OF LASER TREATMENT EFFICIENCY
Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to estimate an application of pulse-periodical mode for improvement of laser treatment efficiency. Laser technologies have been widely used in the processes of material treatment with the purpose to provide them the required surface properties and also for high accuracy cutting of sheet materials. Application of complex treatment is of great interest and especially when it is used for worn-out surfaces with formation of a coating by gas-flame laying of powder mixture of specific composition and subsequent laser fusion.Increase of laser unit capacity is very important task for higher efficiency of laser technology application in mechanical engineering. Nowadays technological processes using lasers with high average power (more than 100 W) have been applying only sources that are working in two modes, namely: continuous and pulse- periodical (P-P) with pulse repetition rate from some units to several hundred hertz and pulse duration within dozens to hundreds of microseconds and even within milliseconds. On the other hand, in some cases shielding effect of plasma cloud formed during laser alloying, cladding or welding reduces the efficiency of laser treatment up to 50 % depending on plasma composition and laser beam length. High frequency P-P laser systems with high average power working in mode of Q-factor modulation allow to realize principally other mechanism of irradiation interaction with materials that is an ablation. In this case it is possible to provide local energy release both in space and time.The performed analysis has revealed that P-P mode of laser operation for a majority of treatment processes is much better and more efficient from energetic point of view in comparison with the continuous mode. On the basis of the developments it is possible to make a conclusion that there is a possibility to create laser systems working in high frequency P-P mode with high average power above hundreds watt.
