Preparation and analysis of micro-holes in C/SiC composites and ablation with a continuous wave laser

Pulsed lasers and continuous wave (CW) lasers play an important role in modern machining technology, especially in machining materials with high hardness, such as C/SiC ceramic composites. However, for pulse lasers, the high costs have been a huge obstacle to their application in machining C/SiC composites. In this work, a CW laser was used to machine micro-holes with less than 1 mm diameter, and the effects of different laser output powers to micro-holes quality and the methods which are used to clean residue were examined. One can conclude that, when the power output is 50 W, the micro-hole surface morphology is better than that of the holes formed with two other output power values. During laser machining, the SiC matrix will be ablated and removed from a carbon fiber layer-by-layer. After cleaning with distilled water and HF, oxide residues can be removed and the expected micro-holes would be successfully constructed.