Laser processing of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics with different wavelengths and pulse durations

In this paper, laser processing of fiber reinforced thermoplastics is investigated with different laser sources. Aim of the study is to determine the process windows in which selective ablation of polymer matrix and homogenous ablation of matrix and fiber occurs. To reach this, laser sources with different wavelengths (10600 nm, 1064 nm and 532 nm) and pulse durations in μs, ns and ps regime are compared on their ablation behavior of natural and black colored glass fiber reinforced polypropylene. Best results were achieved with ns lasers with IR wavelength at black colored material. At this parameter combination a wide process window can be shown where no damage of the reinforcing fibers happens.