| |
Continuous-wave (CW) lasers such as fiber lasers and CO2 laser have been used in cutting and welding of thick metal material in heavy metal industries. A high-power ERL-FEL, which produces femto-second laser pulses, first realizes non-thermal laser machining as totally opposed to thermal machining by the CW lasers. We have applied ERL-FELs to machining of structural material and fuel assemblies of nuclear power plants. After the machining, we also made x-ray residual stress measurement and hardness testing for the testing material. From these experiments, we have clearly demonstrated non-thermal machining by high-power femto-second FEL pulses, which can be applied to large-scale machining such as nuclear industries.
|
|