Laser cutting of carbon fiber reinforced polymers using highly brilliant laser beam sources

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are applied more and more in the aircraft industry as well as in the automobile industry. The principal reason is the highly mechanical load capacity along with the low density. Moreover, the corrosion resistance plus the damping behavior of the material can be utilized fully in highly stressed structures. However, the concept of manufacture CFRP-parts close to the final contour does not substitute the need of cutting them. The different properties of fiberand matrix-material constitute an ambitious challenge while cutting CFRP using a laser beam. This paper deals with elementary analysis of the laser remote cutting process and the gas assisted laser cutting of CFRP.