Inline process metrology system for the control of laser surface structuring processes

Laser surface structuring is a rapidly developing manufacturing technology. This technology offers a high level of flexibility regarding the geometrical design and a wide range of machinable materials. However, current systems used for laser structuring have a crucial deficit. The existing process control systems have no sufficient feedback information of the machined surface topology before, during and after the process, not being able to detect errors / deviations and so to adapt the structuring strategy while processing. Therefore a novel scanner based inline metrology system has been developed to control the laser surface structuring process by a process monitoring software.