CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Amorphous metals such as bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) received attention

due to their unique amorphous atomic structures, which result in high strengths and
high corrosion resistance. These difficult-to-cut materials require high cutting forces,
causing fast tool wear and low surface finish. Improving the machinability of BMG
materials is important in various industries. Several researchers have investigated
methods of improving BMG machinability. These methods include thermally assisted
machining and surface texturing of tools. In thermally assisted machining, high-
energy heat sources are used to preheat the work piece to soften the materials. Laser
assisted machining (LAM) is commonly used for its highly efficient power density
compared to other heat sources such as gas flames or electricity. Challenges are
associated with LAM. It is inevitable that there is a time delay between heating and
chip removal. High-power lasers are used to increase the work piece’s temperature in
a process which uses a high volume of electricity and may cause thermal cracking,
local buckling, or phase changes when the work piece materials go through high
temperature.

It is proposed that micro-laser assisted machining (m-LAM), which allows an

IR diode laser beam to pass through a diamond tool directly during the cutting
process. However the diamond tool has low durability under high temperatures, so not
suitable for machining ferrous materials such as steel. There are another techniques
were studied and applied. Finally, direct laser assisted machining with a sapphire tool
was introduced. Sapphire tool is a transparent tool which having high strength and
high focusing capacity. And it has high chemical stability and optical transmission. So
by using this, the power consumption and localized effects such as heat affected zone,
thermal cracks, and certain marks on the surface can be reduced and the quality and
efficiency of the work piece is improved.

The older technique utilizes external heat sources to increase the temperature
of the cutting area to facilitate the processing of the material. Pre-heating lowers the
shear strength in metals and allows plastic deformation in ceramics. This process
reduces the mechanical processing energy on the tool. Ideally, only the shear zone of

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the processed material is rapidly heated to a desirable temperature and most of the
heat energy is eliminated through the chip. Therefore, the heat sources need to have
high heat energy density for rapid preheating of the material, easy control of the size
and location of the heated areas, and safety, reasonable cost and easy application to
the conventional machines. The preheating technique using plasma was first
developed and patented by Britain’s Production Engineering Research Association
(PERA). It has relatively low initial investment costs and is a high output heat source
on which a lot of research is still being under investigated. Plasma assisted machining
(PAM) was successfully applied to processing silicon nitride.

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 CHAPTER 2

AMORPHOUS SOLID

An amorphous solid does not have a definite geometric or crystalline shape. An

amorphous solid is any solid in which the atoms and molecules are not organized in a
definite lattice pattern. They don’t have a sharp melting point and can melt over a
range of temperatures. Typical examples include glass, plastic, gel, etc. amorphous
solids have high strength and corrosion resistance, but the machining of amorphous
metals is very difficult.

Fig. 2.1Comparison of structures crystalline and amorphous solids

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 CHAPTER 3

LASER ASSISTED MACHINING

In conventional laser assisted machining (LAM) high-power lasers are used to

increase the work piece’s temperature, which uses a high volume of electricity and
may cause thermal cracking, local buckling, or phase changes when the work piece
materials go through high temperature. So in order to overcome the challenges in
conventional LAM, direct LAM with a sapphire tool is used. By minimizing the delay
of heat that is typical in conventional LAM, the overall heating efficiency can be
improved. Power consumption and localized laser effects such as the heat-affected
zone, thermal cracking, and phase change can be minimized. The micro textured
surface is fabricated on the rake face of the sapphire tool by abrasive blasting.

Fig 3.1 Schematics of (a) conventional LAM (b) direct LAM

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 CHAPTER 4

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The work piece material is Zr-BMG (Liquid Metal, Vit-105 — Zr52.5Ti5-

Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10, by atomic percentage). The hardness, ultimate tensile, and yield
strengths of the Vit-105 are 80 HRC, 2133 MPa, and 1524 MPa, respectively at room
temperature. The glass transition (Tg) and crystallization temperatures of BMG are
672K and 741K, respectively. Sapphire is used as an affordable material for cutting
tools with a high hardness. Here, sapphire was chosen as the cutting tool due to its
good optical and thermal properties and its heat resistance. A half-sphere sapphire
tool with a diameter (D) of 6.35 mm was mounted on a custom-built clamp.
Orthogonal tests were performed at a rake angle of zero degree with cutting edge radii
(r) of approximately 10 mm.

Fig 4.1 schematic of the half-ball sapphire tool

4.1 TEXTURING OF THE SAPPHIRE TOOL

Several methods can be employed to texture the cutting tool surface, including laser,
EDM, etc. Sapphires are transparent and non-electrically conductive, so those
methods cannot be used. Instead, we used micro abrasive blasting to fabricate non-
uniform micro textures on the rake face. Abrasive blasting was performed by a micro-
abrasive blaster (COMCO ProCenterTM) using 100 mm micro-abrasive aluminum
oxide powders. The textured area was approximately 31.7 mm, the nozzle-surface
distance was 20 mm, and the air pressure was 0.45 MPa. The textured surface profiles
were measured through a 3D optical profiler. The surface roughness of the non-

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textured surface’s Ra is 0.41 mm and its Rq is 0.52 mm. The textured surface’s Ra is
0.78 mm and its Rq is 1.07 mm.

Fig.4.2 3D images of the non-textured and textured sapphire surfaces

4.2 TEST SET- UP

A continuous fiber-coupled diode laser with a wavelength of 808 nm and a maximum

output power 10.4 W was employed as the heat source in this study. The laser beam
was focused by a collimator. A half-sphere sapphire tool mounted on a customized
clamp was used as the cutting tool. The spectral transmittance of sapphire at 808 nm
is more than 83% [7], which is sufficient to allow the laser beam to pass through the
sapphire with minimal energy loss. The orthogonal cutting experiments were
conducted on a modified vertical CNC machine (KERN Micro 2255), where a
custom-made tool holder was installed with the DLAM tool system and mounted on
the machine. The 20 mm _ 15 mm _ 1.5 mm BMG plate was placed on top of a three-
axis table dynamometer (Kistler 9256C2). The force signals were measured through
charge amplifiers and a data acquisition system.

Fig.4.3 Schematic of the orthogonal cutting test set-up

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 The half-spherical sapphire allows the laser beam to be focused near the cutting
edge, while the laser beams power density at the rake face (flat surface of the
sapphire) was increased compared to the original beam. At the rake face, the outcome
beam was not perpendicular to that surface, and the shape of the irradiation area was
close to a trapezoid. The heating area was approximately 0.053mm2 at the rake face
base on the simulation result. Dry orthogonal cutting tests were performed with
different laser output power (0, 2.8, & 7.9 W) and different cutting speeds (50, 100,
and 150 mm/min) to identify their influences on cutting forces, chip formation, and
surface finish.

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 CHAPTER 5

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The effect of laser heating on cutting forces and surface finish were investigated at
different cutting speeds. The influences of laser heating on chip morphology and
shear banding were examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The micro
textured tool rake face was also employed with direct laser heating. Finite element
analysis was performed to examine the effects of laser heating and surface texturing.

5.1 EFFECTS OF CUTTING FORCES DUE TO LASER POWER AND

CUTTING SPEED

Cutting forces were collected and compared for each test with different cutting
conditions. The cutting force results with laser output powers of 0, 2.8, and 7.9 Wand
cutting speed variations of 50, 100, and 150 mm/min is shown in Fig.5.1. The
tangential force (Ft) and feed force (Ff) decreased about 30% when the 2.8 W lasers
were used. Whereas 7.9 W power laser has increased the forces at higher cutting
speed. Lower cutting speeds yielded greater cutting force reduction for the tangential
cutting force with the application of DLAM.

Fig.5.1 Variation of cutting force with laser power and cutting speed

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5.2 EFFECTS OF LASER POWER ON CHIPS FORMED

The deformed chips were collected during the cutting process. The chip morphology
of BMG was identified by SEM as shown in Fig.5.2. Serrated chip formation with
shear localization is commonly observed in BMG machining. Shear localization
(adiabatic shear band) in BMG chips is caused by low thermal conductivity and
amorphous structure of the BMG material.

Fig.5.2 SEM images of the chips (a) & (b) no laser cutting, (c) 2.8W and (d) 7.9W

As shown in the figure, the serrated chip was observed without laser heating.
When the laser was 2.8 W, the chip formation promoted plastic flow, yielding
continuously twisted chips with fewer shear bands. When the laser output power is
increased to 7.9 W, the chip surface shows melted debris, indicating that the chip
material may have undergone phase change during the cutting process. There are 10–
12 dominant lamellas for every 20 mm in length for the no laser chips, and 4–7 for
chips that were cut with assistance from the 2.8 W lasers. The results show that the
formation of shear bands is influenced by laser heating.

5.3 EFFECT OF LASER POWER ON FINISHED SURFACES

The BMG’s machined surfaces were observed through the 3D optical profiler. The
machined Surfaces under different laser powers while the cutting speed stayed
constantly at 100 mm/min were examined.

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 Fig.5.3.Optical microscope images of finished surfaces

Without the laser assistance in the cutting process, the machined surface showed
several surface defects. When the laser output was 2.8 W, only a few defects were
found on the machined surface. The laser output of 7.9 W illustrates several defects
on the surface, which may be due to the melting of the work piece.

0W 2.8W 7.9W

Sa 0.29μm 0.09μm 0.10μm

Sq 0.33μm 0.11μm 0.11μm

Spv 1.88μm 0.80μm 1.23μm

The surface roughness arithmetic mean height (Sa), root mean squared height (Sq) and
peak-to-valley roughness (Spv) of the finished surfaces are compared in Table 5.1
These results demonstrate that DLAM could improve the quality of the machined
surfaces.

Table 5.1 Comparison of surface roughness of machined surfaces

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5.4 EFFECTS OF CUTTING FORCES DUE TO TEXTURED TOOL
SURFACE

The micro-textured sapphire tool was used to examine the effect of tool surface
texture. Orthogonal cutting tests were performed with a cutting speed of 100 mm/min
and a laser output power of 2.8 W. The results of the cutting force comparison are
shown in Fig.5.4. The application of rake face texture on the tool slightly decreases
cutting forces. This is especially true for the feed force, which represents the friction
force at the tool-chip interface. This observation suggests that the textured sapphire
tool’s rake face could reduce cutting forces by reducing friction at the tool-chip
interface.

Fig.5.4 Cutting force comparison with and without texture

5.5 DISCUSSIONS

The way by which the laser affects cutting force signal oscillation, chip morphology
and surface roughness is discussed here. Finite element analysis was performed with
ABAQUS/ExplicitTM to examine the effects of laser heating and surface texturing in
the cutting process. The cutting forces from the simulation were compared to examine
the changes due to the laser heating and surface texturing.

The experimental cutting force signals of BMG cutting generally show oscillation.
As shown in Fig. 6.5.1, the periodic shear localization and lamellar chip formation are
the main reasons for the force oscillation. With the increase in laser power, the cutting
force oscillation was reduced. The minimized oscillation confirms the reduced shear
bending, which is consistent with the chip morphology.

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 Fig.5.5 The cutting force signals from the cutting test

The complex deformation of BMG is influenced by multiple factors in the machining

process. FEM simulation provides an efficient method to investigate the effects of
influencing factors, making it possible to achieve an understanding of the cutting
mechanism by numerical modeling. A 2D FE model was built to represent the cutting
process. It was coupled with laser heating and tool textures.

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 CHAPTER 7

ADVANTAGES

 By compared to other machining processes high energy efficiency can be

obtained by using direct LAM with a sapphire tool.
 The laser power required to improve the machinability is very less as
compared to conventional LAM.
 Better surface finish can be obtained by using this technique compared to
other conventional techniques.
 In other techniques due to the high hardness of the amorphous metals, tool will
be degraded very fast, but here tool is increased a lot more.
 Localized laser effects such as the heat-affected zone, thermal cracking, and
phase change can be minimized.

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 CHAPTER 8

CONCLUSION

When the laser output power is 2.8 W, cutting force can be reduced by
approximately 30% by using DLAM when the cutting speed is within the range of
50–150 mm/min. When the laser output is 7.9 W, it leads to phase changes of work
piece. The surface roughness was improved 68% when the laser power was 2.8 W.
When the laser output power was 7.9 W, the surface roughness changed slightly in
comparison to 2.8 W. Chip formation is affected by the use of the laser. Less chip
segmentation was identified when the laser was applied, implying that the enhanced
ductility of the BMG material. The combined application of DLAM and micro
textured tool surface could reduce the experimental cutting force by 40%. DLAM
could reduce the cutting forces and improve the machined surface quality in Zr-BMG
cutting process while the temperature of work piece is below the glass transition
temperature. The optimization of suitable laser power and cutting conditions are
important for machining of BMG.

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1. Feng Ding, Chengyong Wang, Tao Zhang, Lijuan Zheng, Xuguang Zhu: High
performance cutting of Zr-based bulk metallic glass: a review of chip
formation
2. Yuan Wei, Chaneel Park, Simon S. Park: ¬Experimental Evaluation of Direct
Laser Assisted Turning through a Sapphire Tool
3. Mustafa Bakkal,Albert j.Shih,Ronald O Scattergood : Machining of a Zr-Ti-
Al-Cu-Ni metallic glass (2003)
4. S.S.Park,Y.Wei,X.L.Jin : Direct laser assisted machining with a sapphire tool
for bulk metallic glass (2018)
5. Jeon Y, Lee CM (2012) Current Research Trend on Laser Assisted Machining.
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