**Conflict of interest**

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in the work.

*Practical Applications of Laser Ablation*

• Investment cost is high

• Maintenance cost is high

**9. Conclusions**

regarding LBM.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

• Minimum amount of metal removal

• Highly skilled operator is required

• Power consumption for LBM is high

• Transparent and greatly reflective materials cannot be machined using LBM

The chapter presented an overview of the LBM technique and the principle of laser production, properties, types of lasers, and its application in machining field. The advantages and limitations are also discussed at the end. Based on the discussions from the presented sections, the following conclusions are made

• LBM is an effective technique for processing complex geometries of different materials with superior properties. While this technique is mostly advantageous in the field of machining, it also possesses few disadvantages such as low energy efficiency, low material removal rate which affects productivity, quality

• LBM depends upon many important parameters such as wavelengths of lasers used, scanning speed, type of laser beam (pulsed or CW), pulse duration, assist gas and its flow, material properties and physical dimensions to assess some of the performance characteristics like surface quality, thermal stresses

• Excellent flexibility to automation of LBM enables it to be used in advanced machining applications like micromachining with superior level of accuracy.

The authors wish to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan ROC

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in the work.

concern due to diverged or converged laser beam.

due to HAZ, formation of dross and defects.

for the financial support to carry out this work.

• Applications related to machining thicker materials are very limited

**100**
