Uploaded October 2013 | Updated September 2026, 17 hours ago
This video is of a surface texturing process know as Laser Surfi-Sculpt® where the laser keyhole forces the molten metal backwards to form a capillary jet. The interplay between the keyhole pressure force and the surface tension can be seen in these videos. Upon cooling the moved material solidifies and repeated swipes of the laser produce the Surfi-Sculpt features as can be seen in the videos. This understanding has only been possible through high speed imaging. The filming was taken using a high-speed imaging camera at 40,000 fps and lit using two 500W illumination lasers, a 6.5x magnification lens was also used. The videos have been edited and sped up in places to highlight the most interesting parts of the mechanism. The second video shows the effect of processing at too high a speed in a humorous way. The third video shown is of processing at 45° to investigate the influence of gravity and shows the melt crawling over the existing feature. The fourth video shows the interplay between the capillary momentum and solidification. The sample is being processed in Nitrogen which causes the capillary to cool rapidly, in this case just before a droplet is formed. This causes a top heavy feature which then, rather amusingly, falls over. Acknowledgements: EPRSC engineering instrument pool for the lone of the camera and illumination laser, Inkjet Research Centre for the loan of the lens and TWI Ltd. for the laser processing equipment and second illumination laser where the work was also carried out.
This video is of a surface texturing process know as Laser Surfi-Sculpt® where the laser keyhole forces the molten metal backwards to form a capillary jet. The interplay between the keyhole pressure force and the surface tension can be seen in these videos. Upon cooling the moved material solidifies and repeated swipes of the laser produce the Surfi-Sculpt features as can be seen in the videos. This understanding has only been possible through high speed imaging. The filming was taken using a high-speed imaging camera at 40,000 fps and lit using two 500W illumination lasers, a 6.5x magnification lens was also used. The videos have been edited and sped up in places to highlight the most interesting parts of the mechanism. The second video shows the effect of processing at too high a speed in a humorous way. The third video shown is of processing at 45° to investigate the influence of gravity and shows the melt crawling over the existing feature. The fourth video shows the interplay between the capillary momentum and solidification. The sample is being processed in Nitrogen which causes the capillary to cool rapidly, in this case just before a droplet is formed. This causes a top heavy feature which then, rather amusingly, falls over. Acknowledgements: EPRSC engineering instrument pool for the lone of the camera and illumination laser, Inkjet Research Centre for the loan of the lens and TWI Ltd. for the laser processing equipment and second illumination laser where the work was also carried out.
