Due to its exceptional advantages, such as high specific strength, high specific modulus, and good fatigue resistance, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) is frequently utilized in aerospace, aviation, automotive, rail transportation, and other areas. Composite components typically need to be joined and integrated. In the equipment manufacturing industry, the most used methods for processing composite components are cutting, drilling, and surface treatment. The quality of CFRP is significantly impacted by traditional mechanical processing, causing flaws like delamination, burrs, and tears. Laser processing technology has emerged as a crucial method for processing CFRP for its high quality, non-contact, simple control, and automation features. The most recent research on the laser processing of CFRP is presented in this paper, supporting scientists and engineers who work in the field in using this unconventional manufacturing technique. This paper gives a general overview of the key features of laser processing technology and the numerous machining techniques available. The concepts and benefits of laser processing technology are discussed in terms of the material properties, mode of operation, and laser characteristics, as well as the methods to achieve high efficiency, low damage, and high precision. This paper reviews the research development of laser processing of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, and a summary of the factors affecting the quality of CFRP laser processing. Therefore, the research content of this article can be used as a theoretical basis for reducing thermal damage and improving the processing quality of laser-processed composite materials, while, on this basis, we analyze the development trend of CFRP laser processing technology.

Carbon-fiber-reinforced epoxy (CFRP) composites are widely used in aerospace structures because of their high specific strength and modulus; however, matrix cracking and interlaminar delamination induced by low-velocity impact compromise their structural safety. To overcome the difficulty of simultaneously improving interfacial strength and impact resistance through uniform nanomodification, a pearl-inspired gradient interfacial architecture incorporating a through-thickness distribution of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) was developed and compared with unmodified and uniformly modified CFRP laminates. SEM/EDS, TEM, double-cantilever-beam testing, low-velocity impact testing, compression-after-impact (CAI) testing, and micro-CT were combined to examine the effects of POSS spatial distribution on interfacial morphology, Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness, and impact-damage evolution. POSS incorporation increased interfacial roughness and produced nanoscale POSS-rich domains within the epoxy matrix. Although uniform addition of 0.5 wt% POSS increased the mean CAI strength to 142 MPa, the Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness decreased to 0.479 kJ·m⁻², revealing a trade-off in performance. By contrast, the gradient interface combined a high-POSS region with low-POSS regions that retained greater matrix continuity, thereby integrating material modification with through-thickness structural regulation. The gradient laminate showed more segmented crack paths and damage dispersion while suppressing continuous delamination. In the present tests, the gradient CFRP laminate exhibited a Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of 1.342 kJ·m⁻² (n = 1) and a mean CAI strength of 192 MPa (n = 3), corresponding to descriptive increases of approximately 148% and 113.3%, respectively, relative to the unmodified laminate. These results indicate that the response of the tested laminates depends not only on POSS content but also on its spatial distribution, providing an interfacial-design strategy for high-damage-tolerance CFRP laminates.