Non-Intrusive Direct Part Marking with Femtosecond Laser Pulses

ABSTRACT: In Phase I, we presented options for direct marking of high-performance turbine parts using ultrashort pulse lasers, that do not compromise the integrity of said parts. In the proposed effort, we will work with our customer to: evaluate metallurgy and fatigue, and mark quality on the range of materials used for fracture critical parts; develop marking conditions for all major alloys to be marked; test critical performance parameters including fatigue limit to include quality and readability of scanned/ machine readable bar code marks; and integrate results to develop specifications for improved marking equipment. BENEFIT: The system we design will reduce risk in applying new marking requirements, and will directly benefit the commercial and defense aerospace markets, as well as ground-based turbines for power-generation.