Evolution of milled cavity in the multiple laser scans of titanium alloy under a flowing water layer
Journal article
Authors/Editors
Strategic Research Themes
No matching items found.
Publication Details
Author list: Tangwarodomnukun V., Wuttisarn T.
Publisher: Springer
Publication year: 2017
Journal: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (0268-3768)
Volume number: 92
Issue number: #
Start page: 293
End page: 302
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 0268-3768
eISSN: 1433-3015
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
View in Web of Science | View on publisher site | View citing articles in Web of Science
Abstract
The needs for damage-free and fine-scale features with good surface finish have been challenging today’s manufacturing technologies. Laser machining process performed under a flowing water layer is a capable technique to satisfy these requirements with high processing rate and clean cut surface. However, the capability and performance of this process for milling applications have not clearly been understood yet. Therefore, this study aims at enabling an insight into the laser milling process under a flowing water layer. Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) was employed as a work sample in this study, and a nanosecond pulse laser was used to ablate the material in water. The effects of laser traverse speed and number of scans on geometrical dimensions, surface and subsurface characteristics were experimentally investigated. The results revealed that a deeper milled cavity with a smaller taper angle was achievable by using a slower traverse speed and more number of laser scans. A trade-off between the uniformity and roughness of milled surface was also evidenced under the different laser traverse speeds examined in this study. By comparing to the laser milling of titanium alloy in ambient air, there was no metallurgical change remarkably found in the laser-milled area when the process was carried out in water. In addition, specific energy required to fabricate a laser-milled cavity was about 18 kWs/mm3 for a single scan technique and linearly increased with the number of scans. The findings of this study will advance the understanding of laser ablation in flowing water as well as other liquid-assisted laser machining techniques. The implication of this study will further open wider applications of liquid-assisted laser ablation for a more intricate micro-fabrication with high resolution, high processing rate, and less thermal damage. © 2017, Springer-Verlag London.
Keywords
Cavity, Milling, Water
Contact Information