Fiber Laser Based Single Pulse Drilling for Production of Perforated Titanium Sheets for HLFC Structures

In the last years, a new generation of developed laser systems with optic fiber as the active medium, the so-called fiber lasers, have made possible that laser technologies whose precision and quality were not so relevant in the production of micro-perforations now become in high-throughput quality solutions in new fields of application. In this work we present a study of the Single Pulse Micro-Drilling (SPMD) technique for the production of large micro-perforated titanium panels needed in the aerospace industry for developing Hybrid Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) structures at production rates as high as 300 holes per second.