LASER ASSISTED MACHINING

OF DIFFICULT-TO-MACHINE
MATERIALS.

Smit Mistry
141030011021

 Difficult-to-machine materials

Recent years have seen a substantial growth in the

use of advanced materials to obtain improved
properties such as high hardness, thermal stability,
and wear resistance, which are required to meet
the stringent specifications of modern products.
Such materials include ceramics, high temperature
alloys, and composites.

Many advanced materials are known to be very

difficult-to-machine and in some cases are
considered
unmachinable
by
conventional
techniques.

Machining process

While forming processes can produce various shapes

with a high production rate, the attendant dimensional
accuracy and surface finish are often lacking and a
finishing operation is usually performed to achieve a
high dimensional tolerance and/or a very fine surface
finish.
Due to the expanding use of such materials in
automotive,
aerospace,
biomedical
and
other
engineering applications, there is an increasing need
for cost-effective finishing processes. Machining
processes have been most commonly used as finishing
processes when high accuracy or flexibility is required.

While machining

A higher strength and heat resistance

are increasingly demanded from the
advanced engineering materials with
high temperature applications in the
aerospace industry. These properties
make machining these materials very
difficult because of the high cutting
forces, cutting temperature and short
tool life present.

Machinability

The poor machinability of these high

strength and heat resistant alloys is due to
the high temperature at the cutting zone
and high pressure at the cutting tool edge.

The

high cutting temperature, which

dramatically increases with cutting speed

Cont

High chemical reactivity between the workpiece

and cutting tool material at high temperature
makes the chip weld to the cutting tool edge,
which results in not only the poor surface finish
but also accelerating attrition wear of the flank
face.

The cutting pressure is high due to the high

strength and work hardening rate of the
workpiece and short chip-tool contact length.

Laser assisted machining (LAM)

With the rapid advancement of laser

technologies in recent years, laser
assisted machining (LAM) has begun to
emerge as a viable industrial option for
machining
of
difficult-to-machine
materials. Over the last decade, The
systematically
demonstrated
the
capabilities and advantages of LAM for a
wide range of advanced materials
through a scientific study.

Setup

Laser assisted machining uses a laser beam to heat

and soften the workpiece locally in front of the
cutting tool(shown in the figure). The temperature
rise at the shear zone reduces the yield strength and
work hardening of the workpiece, which make the
plastic deformation of the hard-to-machine materials
easier during machining.

Yield strength

reduction in yield strength of workpiece

material with increase in temperature
(as shown in next Figure). These benefits
include the lower cutting forces, longer
tool life and better surface finish.

Figure

Waspaloy

Cont

External heat source

The external heat sources that have been used are

gas flame, electrical arc, induction, plasma arc and
laser beam . The advantages of laser beam
heating over the other heat sources are its
precisely controllable spot size, rapid and local
heating due to its intensive power density. One of
the issues with laser assisted machining (LAM),
however, is the low absorptivity of laser energy by
some metallic workpiece, such as Inconel alloy
and steels. A coating is often required to enhance
the absorption of laser energy in order to increase
the process efficiency.

Material removal temperature, Tmr

The material removal temperature, Tmr ,

which is defined as the average
temperature of the material as it enters
the shear deformation zone, plays a key
role in determining the material removal
behavior, tool wear and surface integrity
in the LAM process. It can be empirically
expressed as a function of laser and
machining parameters by analysing the
predicted temperature at the cutting
zone.

An optimum material removal temperature

An optimum material removal temperature

exists for the minimum tool wear during LAM
of metallic workpiece. It is found to be
250C for Ti-6Al-4V alloy
340C for austenitic stainless steel
300C for SiC /Al
the range of 360-540C for Inconel 718 alloy

(austenitenickel-chromium-basedsuper alloys)

between 300 and 400C for Waspaloy(nickelbased superalloy)

LAM of Heat Resistant Alloys

(Waspaloy)

Waspaloy is a nickel-base superalloy,

which is primarily used in aircraft turbine
engines
as
forged
turbine
and
compressor disks. Other applications
include turbine cases, shafts, and
blades. The combination of good tensile
and fatigue properties of Waspaloy at
intermediate temperatures has made it
attractive for disk applications in both
turbine and compressor sections.

Cutting force & Specific cutting energy

o

The cutting forces and specific

cutting energy of Waspaloy
during LAM decreased by about
20% as Tmrincreased to 400C.
(shown in figure.)

Cont

Tool wear

Notch wear and the flank wear are the

primary tool wear modes.Notch wear
decreased to about a half and the flank
wear decreases by about 40~60%.
The tool life during LAM increased by
about 50% as compared to conventional
machining.

Cont

Surface Integrity

The surface finish improves as the

material
removal
temperature
increases. On average, arithmetic
average Rais about 0.6~0.8 m for a
fresh tool insert in LAM with Tmrabove
300C, while it is over 1 m in
conventional machining.
The surface texture improves greatly as
the
material
removal
temperature
increases.

Cont

Microstructure

No sign of phase compositional change, white

layer, or other defects can be observed in the
microstructure produced by LAM from the
machined surface to about 400 m below. This
indicates that no thermal damage is induced
during LAM.
The grains produced by LAM near the machined
surface tend to be smaller and more uniformly
distributed than those of the original unaffected
area, which will provide a higher fatigue
resistance than the as-received microstructure.

Cont

Hardness

Vickers micro hardness measurements

were taken on the same specimens
below the machined surface using a
square-base pyramidal diamond indenter
with a force load of 10 g.
Compared with conventional cutting,
LAM relieves the strong surface work
hardening effect induced by machining.

Cont

Key results achieved from LAM of various

materials

Composite material(CFRP)

In comparison with conventional cutting,

the cutting force was observed to be
reduced by 3050% and tool wear was
reduced by 2030%. Moreover, LAM was
also
observed
to
increase
the
compressive residual stress of the
machined surface, which in turn
increases the fatigue strength and
improves surface quality.

The advantages of laser-assisted

machining

Efficient cutting of materials that are difficult to

machine significantly higher cutting volumes
and longer tool life times
Considerably shorter manufacturing times and
lower costs
Elimination of cooling lubricants (dry machining)
economic manufacture of complex components
made from technical ceramics (silicon nitride
ceramics)
Highly reproducible manufacturing quality due to
very good control of the laser source

Potential and future

In
this
presentation,
successful
application results of LAM for various
difficult-to-machine materials have been
shown.
Many
benefits
could
be
established by LAM.
LAM have the potential to provide
commercially viable means of improving
manufacturing capabilities for difficultto-machine materials such as super
alloys, ceramics, and composites.

Cont

The higher material removal rates that LAM offers

present an opportunity to significantly reduce the
manufacturing cost of fabricating products made
of these materials.
Development
of
a
scientific
basis
of
laser assisted machining and an ability to fabricate
complex parts with monitoring and control has
taken LAM from laboratory-based experiments to
manufacturing processes that can be implemented
and precisely controlled in industry, with several
successful industrial implementations reported.

Reference

http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-ofuse
http://www.industrial-lasers.com/articles/print/vo
lume-26/issue-1/features/laser-assisted-machining.
html
https://research.engineering.uiowa.edu/ding/LAM
http://www.ipt.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ipt/e
n/documents/broschures/130_04_Laser-assisted%2
0machining.pdf
http://www.scientific.net/AMR.690-693.3359

Thank You