Surface Polishing Mechanism for Mechanical Parts Using Pulsed Fiber Laser

Fiber pulse lasers offer high power, well-controlled technical parameters, long lifetime, narrow pulse duration at nanosecond to femtosecond levels, and are utilized in many kinds of high precision manufacturing applications such as cutting, welding, and surface treatment. This study focuses on the use of a pulsed laser for polishing mechanical parts. A fiber laser source with flexible pulse emission modes, from 50 ÷ 1 million pulses in 1 s, pulse width 10 ÷ 300 nm allowing large instantaneous energy generation has been used. This feature allows for the removal of a very thin surface layer at the micrometer to a nanometer scale, with little thermal distortion of the substrate layer. Moreover, the polishing depth can be controlled accurately by changing the repetition rate, pulse width, and average power. Surface polishing of mechanical parts using a high-power laser brings out a lot of advantages such as accurately controlling the depth of the surface layer, high productivity, and environmental pollution prevention.