Monitoring and visualization opportunities in fiber laser cutting

In the last years, an almost complete transition from CO2 lasers towards fiber lasers has occurred in the sheet metal cutting industry. The success of fiber lasers is mainly associated with lower electric consumption and higher cutting speed. Together with the change in laser technology, the radiation wavelength and, accordingly, the physics of the process has changed significantly, increasing industrial and academic interest in fiber laser related topics.

This doctoral project aims to improve the laser cutting process by means of process monitoring and visualization approaches. First, an industrially compatible monitoring system, which indicates process instabilities, is developed. Second, visualization techniques are established to comprehensively investigate the process and gain new insights about temperature distribution and melt flow dynamics within the cutting front. Finally, the doctoral project demonstrated the industrial applicability of these technologies and investigated the fundamental reasons for the process improvement. In order to achieve the project objectives, a collaboration with an industrial partner has been established, providing relevant support and assuring hardware availability during the research.