Laser micromilling simulation for Copper Alloy G. Tani Department of Mechanical Construction Engineering, University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento,2 – 40125 Bologna, Italy E-mail: giovanni.tani2@unibo.it L. Orazi Department of Science and Method for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola, 2 – 42100 Reggio Emilia Italy E-mail: leonardo.orazi@unimore.it A. Fortunato* Department of Mechanical Construction Engineering, University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento,2 – 40125 Bologna, Italy E-mail: alessandro.fortunato@unibo.it *Corresponding author G. Cuccolini Department of Science and Method for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia,Via Amendola, 2 – 42100 Reggio Emilia Italy E-mail: gabriele.cuccolini@unimore.it Abstract: In this paper a laser milling simulator package is shown and discussed. The software system has been developed to simulate the micro-manufacturing process using solid state lasers with pulse width in the range of 10-100 ns. The system can simulate the effect of the laser beam on the workpiece, keeping into account the surface conditions, the evolution of the workpiece temperature field, the phase changes in the material and the plasma plume effects. Simplifications concerning fluidodynamic and energy dispersions of the plasma plume are proposed. In particular, two empirical tuning parameters are considered: the first one is a global dispersion factor that keep in account the fraction of energy lost in the environment by the plume; the second one is a spreading factor that permits to model the irradiated energy of the laser beam hitting the workpiece. The direct and coupled effects of these two parameters are evaluated and discussed. Keywords: laser ablation; process planning; FDM; simulation. Biographical notes: Alessandro Fortunato is a Researcher at The Department of Mechanical Construction Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy. He completed his PhD degree from University of Bologna in 2006. Since 2000 he has been researching in laser material interaction and in laser process manufacturing. 1 INTRODUCTION Laser micromilling is a removal material process based on the ablation of the target workpiece. The energy, deliv- ered by means of a laser source, provokes the vaporization of the surface together with the heating and melting of the bulk. The workpiece melting reduces the surface quality and should be contained but it is a machining result typ- ical of a nanosecond pulse laser. Long pulse laser milling necessarily deals with the three phase and, subsequently, in the modeling of the process all the three aspects must be considered. Moreover, the laser beam evaporates and ionizes the target material creating a plasma plume above the target surface. Several studies have been proposed in the last years; both numerical and analytical models have Copyright c ⃝ 200x Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. 1