A parametric study of pulsed Nd:YAG laser micro-drilling of gamma-titanium aluminide

In the present research, Nd:YAG laser micro-drilling of gamma-titanium aluminide, a new material which has performed well in laboratory tests as well as in different fields of engineering, is studied. The effect of different process parameters in the optimization of the process is investigated. The aspects considered are the hole circularity at exit and the hole taper of the drilled hole. Lamp current, pulse frequency, air pressure and thickness of the job are selected as independent process variables. The central composite design (CCD) technique based on response surface methodology (RSM) is employed to plan the experiments to achieve optimum responses with a reduced number of experiments.