The Developments and Retrospect of Water–Laser Machining Technology

Laser processing technology has industrialized rapidly, and its popularity increases day by day in today's world. Laser has the ability to cut very hard materials including metals and non-metals. These materials are widely used in automotive, telecommunications technology, aerospace, information technology, biomedicine, military, and the scientific research field. However, the laser process has produced thermal damage and residues on the workpiece material. These problems can be resolved by using the water–laser hybrid machining process. The cooling effect of water helps in removing the debris material, which improves the machined surface quality, decreases the harmful impact on the environment, and ensures work safety. Therefore, the water–laser hybrid process reduces thermal and mechanical damage as well as produces small and parallel kerf surfaces. This is a clean, reliable, high level of accuracy, and flexible machining process. This chapter reviews the past literature based on the water–laser machining process. Moreover, this chapter systematically reviews the three types of water–laser hybrid machining process used by researchers, namely, the waterjet-guided laser process, the waterjet-assisted laser process, and the underwater laser process, as well as their significant parameters, most widely used workpiece materials, different lasers, output responses, advantages, and disadvantages.