Statistical knowledge for industrial competitive advantage in laser drilling process

This work shows the strategic role that a systematic approach to planning for a designed industrial experiment plays in technological process innovation. Problem Definition: the case study involving laser drilling process has been developed in AVIO industry, an aerospace company at the leading edge of propulsion technology. Objective: drilling of the afterburner of EJ200 engine, called Heat Shield, partially coated by an internal thermal barrier (TBC). The holes on the area without thermal barrier were mainly made by DOF (drilling on-the-fly) method; the holes on coated area were made by trepanning because of unsatisfactory quality of the holes achievable by DOF method. To extend the use of the DOF method to this area in order to increase productivity and keep meeting geometrical and metallurgical requirements. Since the results obtained spring from a sound systematic approach, they enable to plan a future experimental phase on optimization and robustness.