An Experimental Investigation of the Laser Milling Process for Polycrystalline Diamonds

An experimental study of the pulsed laser milling process for a sintered polycrystalline diamond is presented. The characteristics and quality of the cavities machined with a Yd laser under different pulse energies, pulse overlaps, scan overlaps and numbers of passes are discussed, together with the effects of these parameters on the cavity profile, depth of cut and surface roughness. A statistical analysis is also presented to study the relationship between the process parameters and surface roughness. It shows that the optimum pulse overlap and pulse energy may be used to achieve good surface finish, whereas scan overlap and number of passes can be selected to improve the depth of cut without much effect on the surface finish.