The laser processing of composite materials as well as cutting edge generation technology based on ultrashort laser pulses has drawn a lot of attention in the past few years. Ultra-hard materials processing such as polycrystalline diamond, natural diamond, tungsten carbide, and CERMET with picosecond pulses makes new opportunities in industrial world. The key parameters that are critical for industrial applications are processing time and processing quality.
Laser manufacturing is done with five axis CNC machine and scanner for beam translation with high speed and ultrashort ps laser source with high repetition rate. The cutting tools and cuttings inserts from Tungsten Carbide and CERMET materials were processed. To reach required 3D shape geometry the different scanning algorithms consisting of sliced structure were designed for investigate the both: optimised processing time and quality.
By varying the laser pulse energy, pulses overlap and layers count, different material removing rates can be achieved from 0.3 μm/layer to ~ 18 μm/layer. In such a way the depth of structures can be controlled with a high precision. The surface quality strongly depends on the used pulse energy and scanning parameters. It was shown that by adjusting processing parameters rough and smooth surfaces can be processed.