Simulation accuracy enhancement with automatic parameters identification for femtosecond laser ablation

Abstract Femtosecond laser processing is a non-thermal process with less heat effect on a target material and is applied to dielectric and difficult-to-machine materials, such as titanium alloy and diamond. Femtosecond laser processing has been used for 3-dimensional shape generation in recent years, and increasing accuracy and productivity are required for such generation by femtosecond lasers. However, a 2.5-dimensional computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system, which is mainly used in femtosecond laser processing, does not satisfy the requirement for complicated 3-dimensional shape generation. Therefore, there is a need for the development of a 3-dimensional CAM system for high-precision and productive 3-dimensional processing. Furthermore, for the 3-dimensional CAM system, quantitative identification of a 3-dimensional removal shape through ablation is necessary. This study proposes the development of a simulation method to accurately predict the 3-dimensional removal shape through femtosecond laser processing, including the piecewise approximation of the ablation rate and absorptance correction. At the same time, a similar 3-dimensional shape as that found through the experimental results was obtained during the simulation by considering the mechanical errors of the laser processing machine in the simulation model. Furthermore, an on-machine measurement system was developed to efficiently identify the ablation parameters.