Investigations in remote cutting of carbon fiber composite materials

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