DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE LASER PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR SHAPING ADVANCED CERAMIC MATERIALS

Laser machining has been shown to offer an increasingly attractive alt ernative to net shape forming processes and/or diamond grinding for pr oducing components of advanced ceramic and ceramic composite materials . The control of machine parameters (incident power, feed, beam polari zation, position of the focal plane and orientation of the beam relati ve to the surface) necessary for the optimization of process parameter s (material removal rate and arithmetic average surface roughness) and of mechanical properties will be discussed It will then be shown how these parameters can be incorporated into the operation of a prototype , fully automated five axis, closed loop controlled laser shaping syst em (comprising a beam conditioner, high power laser scanner and noncon tacting position sensor) to accurately and cost effectively produce co mplex shapes in advanced ceramic materials.