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Cutting and Machining Energetic Materials with a Femtosecond Laser
Author(s) -
Roeske Frank,
Benterou Jerry,
Lee Ronald,
Roos Edward
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.56
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1521-4087
pISSN - 0721-3115
DOI - 10.1002/prep.200390008
Subject(s) - femtosecond , laser , explosive material , detonation , machining , propellant , materials science , energetic material , ignition system , hazardous waste , laser cutting , optics , nanotechnology , mechanical engineering , nuclear engineering , aerospace engineering , metallurgy , physics , engineering , waste management , chemistry , organic chemistry
A femtosecond (fs) laser has been used as a tool for solving many problems involving access, machining, disassembly, inspection and avoidance of undesirable hazardous waste streams in systems containing energetic materials. Because of the unique properties of the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with matter, the femtosecond laser can be used to safely cut these energetic materials in a precise manner without creating an unacceptable waste stream. Many types of secondary high explosives (HE) and propellants have been cut with the laser for a variety of applications ranging from disassembly of aging conventional weapons (demilitarization), inspection of energetic components of aging systems to creating unique shapes of HE for purposes of initiation and detonation physics studies. Hundreds of samples of energetic materials have been cut with the fs laser without ignition and, in most cases, without changing the surface morphology of the cut surfaces. The laser has also been useful in cutting nonenergetic components in close proximity to energetic materials.