Water-jet assisted nanosecond laser microcutting of northeast China ash wood: Experimental study

Abstract

Laser machining is an advanced technology that provides efficiency and precision for the processing of wood. In this paper, the ablation mechanism of wood processed via a water-jet assisted nanosecond laser was analyzed. The influences of cutting speed and laser power on the cutting width of northeast China ash wood (NCAW) (Fraxinus mandshurica Rupr.) with and without the water-jet assisted system were evaluated. The surface morphology of the kerf of processed NCAW was observed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, a factorial design experiment was carried out to analyze the effects of process parameters on the cutting width. Additionally, the experimental results were processed by multilinear regression analysis. The results showed that with the water-jet assisted system, the minimum value of the cutting width was 0.18 mm when the cutting speed was 50 mm/s and the laser power was 6 W, and good surface quality was obtained. The experimental results were processed by an analysis of variance and multilinear regression analysis. The predicted model, effectively validated by the experiments, had good prediction accuracy, which provided a theoretical basis for predicting the cutting width of NCAW processed by a water-jet assisted laser.