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Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICMPC-2019

A review on Laser Machining of hard to cut materials

Aigul Nagimovaa, Asma Perveena*
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, Nazarbayev University, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan

Abstract

Several industries developed their requirement for difficult to machine materials due to their special properties, however,
machining of difficult to cut material poses immense challenge due to higher cutting force and sever tool wear involved. Laser
machining has demonstrated itself as one of the potential technology to serve the machining of difficult to cut materials. This
review paper presents a critical study of laser beam as well as assisted machining for difficult to cut materials. In addition,
principle of laser, type of laser machining, MRR, surface roughness are also discussed in this study.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the 9th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization, ICMPC-2019

Keywords: Ti Alloy; Ni Alloy; Machining; Laser; Ceramics

1. Introduction

Advanced materials such as nickel based alloys, titanium alloys, ceramics have found their growing demands in
the industries like aerospace, medical, nuclear, electronic [1-3].These materials are well known for their greater
strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance and capability to sustain high strength at higher temperature in
comparison with conventional engineering materials. The hard-to-cut materials are hard to machine using standard
machining processes because of their physical and chemical properties such as brittleness despite of their satisfactory
characteristics [4]. Nevertheless, utilization of advanced materials is challenging due to the huge cost involved in
making of a final part. In order to meet this increasing demand from Industries particularly in the aerospace, these
metal machining processes are still being researched and evolved [3; 5-7]. Traditional machining techniques such as
milling, turning, drilling are proving ineffective, due to the large cutting force as well as severe tool wear involved
for hard-to-cut material. Therefore, it was implicit to improve several non-conventional machining methods which

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: asma.perveen@nu.edu.kz

2214-7853 © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the 9th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization, ICMPC-2019
 A. Nagimova and A. Perveen / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447 2441

later on recognized as advanced machining processes (AMPs). This includes Laser beam machining. The laser
beams are extensively utilized for welding, sintering, cutting, drilling, heat treatment and marking [8]. Laser beam
machining (LBM) is considered suitable for hard-to-machine materials, due to its independent nature on materials
hardness and trading vitality[9]. Laser is getting more popularity due to its high beam intensity at low mean power,
good focusing characteristics during very small pulse duration, small kerf widths and narrow heat effected zones,
high productivity, reduced process, eco-friendliness, low manufacturing cost and better surface finish[10].
Under this circumstances, this review study examines material removal mechanism involved with laser
machining, experimental studies of MRR, surface roughness and laser machining of difficult-to-machine materials.

(a)

(b)

Figure1. (a)The schematic of Laser beam machining (cutting) (b) Principle of material removal by LBM

2. Mechanism of Material removal by LBM

Figure 1 (a-b) show experimental set up and removal mechanisms of laser. Working principle of laser beam is
based on transmitting light energy to workpiece. Laser emitting device has active materials, source of energy and
2442 A. Nagimova and A. Perveen / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447

feedback system. When the circuit is on, electrons from active medium get energy to jump on the higher level,
however excited electrons come back to normal state after emitting their extra energy when this energy is switched
off. Laser wave reflecting within lasing medium gets stronger enough to passes through the partially reflective
mirror and then finally the light passes through the focusing lens to the work part (Fig.1). At this point. Laser light
has extremely high power density due to its focusing on a very small area. Some of the Laser light irradiated on the
surface is reflected back, rest of them are absorbed by the surface and conducted to the lattice by photoelectric
effect. As a result of absorption of intensive coherent light beam by workpiece, surface atoms get excited. This will
raise the temperature which aids in materials vaporization and melting. Material removal is also sometimes aided by
gas for better ejection[11].

Figure 2 - Types of drilling: (a) percussion drilling and (b) trepan drilling[12](c) Laser beam cutting[13].

Figure 3– 3D types of LBM: (a) laser turning (helix removal); (b) laser turning (ring removal); (c) laser milling [14]

Figure 4- Schematic of: (a) laser-assisted turning and (b) laser-assisted grinding[8].
 A. Nagimova and A. Perveen / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447 2443

3. Laser beam Machining

There are several kinds of LBM. The main of them are: 1D variation – drilling, 2D - cutting and 3D –
milling, turning, grooving and micromachining. The LB drilling can be divided into two configurations such as
trepan and percussion laser (Fig.2 (a), (b)). Drilling is a better process for machining many holes, which is close to
each other[12]. Cutting has advantages like high usage of material, high accuracy in the field of conventional and
non-conventional machining (Fig.2(c)). Milling and turning use two lasers at once, thus these methods can machine
complex forms (Fig.3 (a-c)) with less amount of energy, as it removes chunk of materials by vaporizing only part of
it.. Micromachining is appropriate for machining of workpieces with dimension below 1 mm [14].Other than those
1, 2, and 3 Dimensional LBM, there are also laser assisted machining which are basically combination of traditional
machining with laser beam as illustrated in Figure 4 (a-b). These assisted machining prove to be quite effective as
this aids in soften the hard to machine materials by laser beam before the machining, therefore removes materials in
ductile manner.
4. Experimental studies

4.1 Material removal rate (MRR)

The MRR grows with beam energy density irrespective of machining speed as presented in Figure
5(a-b) [13].It is reported that different scan rate offers similar ablation rate on sapphire, however surface finishes
become unsatisfactory with higher scan speed. In case of Silicon, 50 and 100mm/s scan speed provides higher
ablation rate than 20mm/s. Slower scanning speed results in large re-solidified debris areas. Higher fluence caused
higher ablation rate for both sapphire and silicon. The influence of pulse intensity (kW) on MRR within pulsed solid
laser cutting demonstrates growing impact for all metal matrix composites, carbon fiber composites and ceramic
composites[15].

Figure 5- The MRR of laser micromachining vs. energy densities for (a) sapphire wafer and (b) silicon wafer, with various feed rates. [13]

4.2 Surface roughness

The cutting speed and laser power has an immense impact on surface roughness as shown by Rajaram et al[16](Fig.
6). Increase of feed rate does not affect the roughness significantly, however after reaching a critical value of feed
rate, surface roughness starts increasing. Moreover, influence of power appears to be significant especially low
power level exhibits higher roughness value. However, other studies reported on the decrease of roughness with the
2444 A. Nagimova and A. Perveen / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447

increase of feed rate [17-19].This contrasting result is due to placement of optimum feed rate. According to the
research, there is a range of optimum feed rate below which increasing feed rate causes decreasing roughness,
whereas above this optimum feed rate, increasing of feed rate increases roughness[20; 21].

Figure 6- Variation of surface roughness of laser cutting of 1.27 mm steel sheet with laser power and cutting speed within CO2[16].

5. Laser machining of Hard-to-cut material

Hard-to cut materials is a literally materials, which is difficult to machine. They have this definition due to
their characteristics like high temperature strength, durability and corrosiveness than conventional metal [22-25].
Hard to cut materials can be divided into several groups based on their properties. For example: Titanium alloy (Ti-
6Al-4V alloy) [26] has low thermal conductive, nickel-based super alloy (Inconel 718 alloy)[27] is a ductile
material, Si3N4 ceramic[28-30] owns high brittleness and hardness. Table 1, 2, 3 provide summery of Ti alloy, Ni
alloy and ceramics machined by laser beam and with the assistance of laser beam.
Table 1. Influence of input variables on Titanium alloys
Operation Input variables Performance Comments
Hybrid machining Material of tool and SR (roughness), By using LAM and HM, tool life was increased by 1.7 and 2 folds
(HM) and LAM MRT (temperature) cutting force and respectively.
[26] wear of tool
Thermally Cutting speed, width. Mechanism of Workpiece was preheated to 3500 C, which drives to the
assisted wear and life of improvement of tool life only to 7 %, while with help of coolant
machining tool there are different result and tool life is increased to 235 %.
(TAM). [31]
LAM [32] Cutting speed and feed Temperature of When cutting speed is above 100m/min then wear of tool is
rates cutting and force maximum, or it is below 25m/min then chip tool welding occurs
of cutting And temperature is between 1050 and 1250 0 C.
Laser Assisted Laser energy diapason Temperature of The reduction in cutting speed occurs when laser power is in the
Machining[33] cutting and force range of 1200W to 1600W, speed of cutting is between 25 and
of cutting 125 m/min.
LAM [34] Speed of cutting, laser Force of cutting, Comparison of two types of titanium such as commercially pure
power chip formation. (CP) titanium and Ti6Al4V alloy show similar results
with LAM. Increase of cutting speed causes cutting force
decrease. With high cutting speed in LAM; chip formation is
same as for conventional machining with lower cutting speed
Laser-Assisted Laser energy, cutting Depth of cut, In comparison with conventional method, radial cutting force was
Finish Turning speed cutting force, SR, decreased over 60%, tangential force was approximately 46%.
[35] chip formation With LAM SR raised. Also LAM influenced on chip formation
LBM [36] Gas pressure, power of MRR, SR Gas pressure didn’t have much impact on MRR and SR. With
laser, speed of cutting, growth in laser power, the MRR is declining. If cutting speed rises
focal point distance then the MRR will also grow, but SR will decrease. Focal point
distance didn’t influence on MRR.
LBM[37] Cutting speed, gas Heat affected zone Argon gas assisted laser cutting proves to be superior compared to
pressure, type of gas thickness, surface nitrogen and air in term of surface quality. If the speed of cut is
morphology high then it will lead to small HAZ. The more laser power, the
more molted zone, thus the depth of cut is increased.
LBM[38] Intensity and MRR, SR SR mainly depends on frequency of pulse and then on intensity.
frequency of pulse, When frequency is high and speed of scanning is low thnn
speed of scan roughness becomes lower.
 A. Nagimova and A. Perveen / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447 2445

Table 2 Influence of input variables on Nickel based super alloys

Input variables Performance Comments
Feed rates and width Wear of tool, SF, specific With the help of LAM, several improvement were reported, like reduction of specific
[40] cutting energy cutting energy by 25%, tool life raised to 200-300%, surface roughness became
smaller (0.9), while in conventional machining it is 1.7. Cost drops by 50%.

Surface coating, feed Cutting force, life of tool Cutting force is considerably decreased by 40% and is independent from material of
rate, speed[1] cutting tool. Life of tool with ceramic inserts became better when compared with
traditional machining

Speed of cut, feed Surface finish, MRR, Surface finish increases by quarter and there were growth in MRR to 800% and
rates[41] force of cutting decrease in cutting force.

Temperature of Finished surface, wear of Life of tool increased by half, however there were drop in cutting forces by fifth.
metal removal, speed tool, cutting forces
of cut, feed rates.
[42]
Power, feed rate, MRT, SR, specific cutting All input have impact on MRT. Specific cutting energy and force of cut drops if
speed of cutting, energy, cutting force, tool cutting speed and feed rate declines. Increasing in temperature leads to the reduction
frequency, wear in specific cutting energy by 35%. In temperature 550 OC, wear of tool is declining,
temperature [43] thus surface roughness is improved by 22%. Different forms of chip is presented due
to increase in temperature.

Speed of cut, feed Cutting force, SR
rate, laser power
[44]
Different types of Tool wear, machining
tool and laser [45] force, SR, micro
hardness, residual stress
Increase in speed of cut leads to drop in cutting force. If feed rate rises, the cutting
force also will increase. With Laser energy increasing, SR generated becomes 1.61
times higher. Tool wear is also less by LAT in comparison with conventional
machining.
By using LAM it was investigated, that with help of ceramic tool the integrity of
machined surface was developed. Speed of cutting has impact on SR when Nd: YAG
laser was utilized.

Intensity and Depth of cut Increase in intensity will lead to rise in depth, while with growth in frequency, depth
frequency of pulse, drops.
speed of scan[46]

Table 3 Influence of input variables on Ceramics

Input variables
Time of pre-heating and
laser energy[31]
Tool features, speed of cut
and width, laser energy[28]
Heat[29]
Frequency of laser pulse,
width, feed and cutting
speed, rotational speed[47]
Laser energy, [48]
Power of laser, feed rate [49]
Laser energy, feed rate, pulse
frequency [50]
Performance Comments
Wear of tool, MRM Tool life became better. Damage of subsurface does not occur and strength of
(mechanism), damage of material does not decrease.
subsurface
Wear of tool, MRM, This work described the number of input variables, which can influence the
damage of subsurface performance. Diapason of laser energy between 170 and 190 works better.
Width should be nearly to 0.75mm
Energy of cut, Tool life have growth from 3 to 120 min. Optimal MR temperature is
wear of tool, MRM between 900 to 1100 OC
SR and MRR For good surface roughness, rotational speeds are required. Laser energy
gives significant power to achieve temperature of glass transition for easy
machining at MRT 850 0C.
Size of cavity, HAZ, As the power of laser is going up, the cavity size is rising. In comparison
taper angle. with air machining, in liquid medium size of cavity is less due to the
absorption of heat by liquid. If laser power increases, HAZ will rise. Taper
angle is reducing as laser power is enhancing.
MRR, SR The maximum number of MRR was tested when laser power was 942W.
Smaller feed rate aids in higher SR. Low laser energy with increased speed of
translation causes MRR to drop little by little but if the laser energy is high;
MRR rapidly increases and when it reaches peak, it will fall.
Kerf and cuts without Temperature was increased so that substrate is destroyed. The optimization of
cracks geometry of cuts was demonstrated.
2446 A. Nagimova and A. Perveen / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 2440–2447

6. Summary

This study attempted to provide an overview of laser machining of difficult to cut materials such as Ti, Ni and
ceramics, however, some issues related to laser machining need to be resolved before Laser can be conveniently
used for these kind of materials. Although laser drilling and cutting are quite popular in practice, 3D LBM needs
more research investigation as it is not yet fully established. However, one of the difficulties faced during deep hole
drilling is to focus effectively avoiding multiple reflection. Other than that complex low energy efficiency, heat
affected zone, metallurgical, and geometrical issue are pretty common due to the thermal machining nature. Future
researches should also address thicker materials cutting and micro-structure fabrication.

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