Experimental study on infrared water guided laser cutting of 7075 aluminum alloy

As a novel composite processing technology, water guided laser has the advantages of small heat affected zone, good surface quality of the cut surface, strong processing depth capability and small taper compared with the traditional dry laser processing technology. In this paper, the infrared water guided laser processing technology is used to process 7075 aluminum alloy, which has high strength, high toughness and corrosion resistance and is widely used in the fields of aerospace, mechanical equipment. The processing parameters of the infrared water guided laser including the effect of 7075 aluminum alloy on the cutting depth, kerf width and surface quality at different feed speed, number of cutting times and peak power are analyzed to extend the processing method of 7075 aluminum alloy. The distance-power curve was also derived based on the fact that the further the power meter was from the nozzle, the lower the power measured within the water column. The experimental results show that the faster the 7075 aluminum alloy feed speed is, the shallower the cutting depth and the smaller the kerf width is, while the higher the number of cuts and the higher the peak power are, both will result in large cutting depth and kerf width. Finally, high quality cutting through and punching of 3mm aluminum alloy plate is achieved, which provides the theoretical basis for the study to infrared water guided laser.