Striation Mechanism in Laser Cutting – the Review

High-power laser cutting is extensively used in many industrial applications.The quality of a laser-made cut is of the utmost importance in laser processing. Any improvements in this area would be of considerable significance, in that it would lead to an elimination of post-machining operations. Although there have been numerous techniques developed over the years, currently there are few appropriate strategies implemented in industry for improving laser cutting quality, partially due to the fact that laser cutting is a highly complex thermal process. The mechanisms governing the laser cutting process are not fully understood. One of the important quality factors of laser cutting is striation (periodical lines) formation on the cut surfaces, which affects the surface roughness and geometry precision of laser cut product. An important weakness of this process is the formation of striations (regular lines down the cut surface), which affect the quality of the surfaces produced.It is the aim to critically investigate and review on the striation mechanism which affect the quality of laser cutting and associated quality improvement techniques. Present trends and future directions are then presented.The elimination of striation formation is of considerable importance, since it could open up a variety of novel high-precision applications.