Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology

Laser Systems and its Applications

(BOE-312)
Unit-5
UNIT-V Applications and Hazards and Safety Consideration:
Laser applications in medicine and surgery ef fect of laser on biological
tissues, diagnostic of disease, ophthalmology, general surgery,
dermatology, dentistry, advantages and disadvantages; Laser
applications in materials processing hole drilling, cutting, laser
hardening, advantage and disadvantage of laser in material processing;
Laser applications in optical communication; Laser applications in
metrology: Laser applications in LIDAR; Laser applications in holography;
Laser hazards and safety consideration
 Laser applications in Field of Industry:
In the mid 20th century , laser technology came out through the
continuous ef fort of generations of scientists and Technicians laser
technology has been developed and perfected laser technology funds
many applications in almost every f ield of life like, Industry, medicine,
communication etc. In the 21st century , laser technology in the eld of
industry has been popularized and achieved considerable economic
and social ef fects some of the important application of laser in the
eld of industry are as follows:
 1 Laser welding :
• It make use of high energy laser pulses to melt the
materials to desired depth.
• T he most commonly used lasers in welding are CO2
and Nd-YAG laser.
• T he advantages of laser welding is that it does not
make contact with the materials which help in welding
the parts in protective atmosphere laser create strong
and reliable welds at low cost.
• Laser can weld contact in microelectronics which required precise
welding of 2 thin lms together.
• Laser welding is most prominent in automobile industry where it allows
productivity at low cost by welding automobile parts such as roof, door
etc.
• Laser welding is also used in jewelry and medical industry to put
together metals on a small levels
• Any materials with a high heat conductivity can be laser welded.
• Laser welding o ers high level of accuracy and control.
• Laser welding can be used to weld smallest of parts together without
causing damage to them. It allows faster welding there is no need of
Laser Welding in Automobile Jewellery laser welding
Railway line
repair on
track with
mobile laser
2.Laser cutting :
• In the simplest terms, a CNC laser cutter uses a coherent beam of light to
cut material, most often sheet metal, but also wood, diamond, glass, plastics
and silicon.
• In the beginning, the beam was directed through a lens via mirrors, but these
days ber optics are much more common. e lens focuses the beam at the
work zone to burn, melt or vaporize the material
Laser cutting can be divided into two types:
• Laser fusion cutting : Laser fusion cutting involves melting
material in a column and using a High pressure stream of gas to
shear the molten material away, leaving an open cut kerf.
• Ablative laser cutting : Ablative laser cutting removes material
layer by layer using a pulsed laser—it’s like chiseling, only with
light and on a microscopic scale. T his generally means
evaporating the material, rather than melting it.
 Two other key factors distinguish laser fusion cutting from
ablative laser cutting:
• First, ablative laser cutting can be used to make partial cuts in a material,
whereas laser fusion cutting can only be used to cut all the way through it. T his
is due to fusion cutting operating with lasers either in continuous waves or with
signi cantly longer pulses than ablative cutting.
• T he second and more signif icant factor that distinguishes these two types of
laser cutting is speed. “With sheet metal cutting—which makes up the bulk of
the cutting industry. At the current state of laser technology, laser fusion
cutting is much faster for those setups. Ablative cutting takes more time, for
now. Fiber Lasers vs CO2 T he two most common types of laser cutting
3. Laser hardening:
• Laser beams are invisible electromagnetic radiations in the infra-red portion of the
spectrum, and are increasingly being used for surface-hardening of ferrous
materials to improve mechanical properties like wear resistance and even fatigue
resistance.
• T here are two main type of Lasers used- YAG Solid-state type and the carbon-
dioxide gas type.
• T he output of YAG laser has much shorter wavelength, 1.064 µm, whereas the
carbon dioxide laser emits radiations with 10.8 µm wavelength. Carbon dioxide
laser is more commonly used and is suitable for surface hardening, particularly
when the process requires more than 500 W of power.
• T he power density of laser beam is usually expressed as watts per
square centimeter. T he power densities used in laser surface hardening
are in the range of 500 to 5000 W/cm2 with dwell times in the range of
0.1 s to 10 s.
• During Laser surface hardening, a laser can generate very intense
energy f lu xes at the surface of the component, when the Laser
radiations impinge on it, and are absorbed to generate heat energy. is
heat is then conducted inside the component.
Advantage and disadvantage of laser in material processing:
1. Advantage:
1. Non-harden able steels like mild steels can be surface hardened.
2. Hardness obtained is slightly higher than conventional hardening.
3 Closer control over power inputs helps in eliminating dimensional distortion.
4. Beam (with the help of optical parts) can easily reach the inaccessible areas
of components, and re-entrant surfaces.
5. No vacuum or protective atmosphere is required.
6. T he last optical element of the Laser and the component to be surface
hardened may be far placed.
7. Very long and irregular-shaped components can be hardened easily
2. Disadvantages:
1. High initial cost particularly of large lasers.
2. Lasers use 10% of the input energy, i.e., there are ine cient.
3. e depth of case is very limited.
4. Working cost is high.
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