Computational and Experimental Investigations of Laser Marking on 6061 Aluminium Alloy
J.M. Li, C.H. Lu, J.Q. Zhang and Y.S. Wu
In this work both the computational heat transfer model and experimental investigations were used for understanding laser marking on the surface of a 6061 aluminium alloy, subjected to various processing conditions. The influence of laser processing parameters on the change of surface temperature and marking depth of laser processed 6061 aluminium alloy samples were studied. Furthermore, laser marking experiments on 6061 aluminium alloy substrates using a Nd:YAG laser were carried out. A good agreement between the simulation results and experimental data proved that the established simulation model could be used to give instructions regarding the practical marking process and predict the marking results as well.
Keywords: Nd:YAG laser, 6061 aluminium alloy, laser marking, heat transfer, thermal model, COMSOL