Local Vaporization at the Cut Front at High Laser Cutting Speeds

High-speed videos of the cut front and spectrometric measurements were applied to detect local vaporization on the cut front at high cutting speeds to show that with increasing feed rate, temporally short and intense flashes are generated by vaporization phenomena on the upper part of the cut front. The latter are accompanied by the emergence of an interrupted striation pattern on the surface of the cutting edge. The findings support the assumption that local vaporization at the cut front might be the cause for reduced quality of the cutting process at elevated cutting speeds. The observation of vaporization serves as a diagnostic method to anticipate a fail cut and the interrupted striation pattern.