Cutting performance of a chemical oxygen-iodine laser on aerospace and industrial materials

A chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) was used for cutting aluminum, titani um, inconel and copper plates. The laser was operated with a stable resonat or having an intracavity aperture to produce a circular COIL beam with very few transverse modes. The multimode focal spot diameter was calculated and measured to be approximately 0.24 mm. The new aluminum cut was of good ker f edge quality. These COIL cutting data are compared with an existing theor etical laser cutting model. Using thermophysical data for aluminum, titaniu m, inconel and copper, this theory agrees very well with the data. To test the versatility of the model, the effects of different assumptions are exam ined; different assumptions produced very little effect on model prediction s at high cutting speeds and a small difference at very slow cutting speeds . Overall, the theoretical model provides good agreement with experiments f or a wide variety of metals. (C) 1999 Laser Institute of America. [S1042-34 6X(99)00103-5].