Interactional relations between ablation and heat affected zone (HAZ) in laser cutting of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite by fiber laser

•The spot and plume are used as evaluation indicator to estimate the ablation conditions.•Effects of process parameters on ablation and HAZ are analyzed.•The relationship between ablation and HAZ is revealed.•The defects in the HAZ can be judged by the ablation phenomenon. Laser technology is widely used in the processing of various composite materials. Ablation and heat affected zone (HAZ) are important phenomena in laser processing, but the relationship between ablation and HAZ defects has not been deeply researched. In this paper, laser cutting of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) was investigated by means of fiber laser. To assess the influence of the process parameters on ablation and HAZ, four main parameters were selected as the experimental factor in single factor experimental study. The degree of material ablation was judged according to the phenomenon of light spot and plume in processing, and the width of HAZ was measured by optical microscope. The experimental analysis shows that the HAZ defects by the ablation phenomenon can be evaluated to reveal the relationship between ablation and HAZ. On this basis, improving the ablation condition is helpful to reduce the formation of HAZ.