Minimizing surface roughness and back wall dross for fiber laser micro-cutting on AISI 316 L tubes using response surface methodology

A response surface methodology (RSM) was performed to study the influence of spot overlapping and pulse energy on back wall dross and surface roughness for fiber laser cutting of AISI 316 L stainless steel minitubes. Three treatments were compared to expel molten material (argon gas, compressed air, and a control test). Our results indicated that back wall dross and dross height reduction is observed when argon gas or compressed air is used through tubes compared with the control test. Additionally, a higher value of spot overlap (87.49%) and a lower value of pulse energy (30.31 mJ) resulted as the optimal parameters to cut minitubes.