Experimental investigation of Hole geometry on Laser Drilling of AA8090-T3 Al-Li Alloy using Taguchi Method

Laser drilling is a promising non-contact technique for creating precision holes in lightweight aluminum-lithium alloys utilised in cutting-edge engineering applications. The geometric characteristics of laser-drilled holes in AA8090-T3 aluminum-lithium alloy under various parameters of laser power, scanning speed, and pulse frequency are analysed experimentally in this study. A Taguchi L27 experimental design was employed, resulting in 27 experimentally drilled holes. The geometric quality of the holes was evaluated using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) in terms of hole diameter, diameter deviation, roundness, cylindricity and perpendicularity. The measured hole diameter varied from 3.0455 to 3.1937 mm against a nominal diameter of 3.000 mm, while roundness, cylindricity and perpendicularity deviations ranged from 0.0218–0.1952 mm, 0.0520–0.1789 mm and 0.0089–0.1732 mm, respectively. The experimental results reveal considerable variation in hole geometry with changes in the laser processing conditions. The minimum values of the individual geometric deviations were obtained at different parameter combinations, demonstrating the response-dependent nature of laser drilling.