Product Code: ICAL05_P516

Laser Assisted Turning of Hardened Steel
Authors:
Katsuhiko Sakai, Shizuoka University; Hamamatsu Japan
Presented at ICALEO 2005

A new machining method for turning of hardened steel is presented in this paper. It is a hybrid machining of conventional turning and laser heating of the material. As hardened steel is too hard to cut, it is grounded to improve it?s dimensional accuracy, though this process have poor productivity and requires relatively long time. By using laser-heating technology, hardness of steel can be reduced effectively, and thus turning is available for hardened steel instead of grinding. The softened area is limited in front of the cutting tool and then they will be removed, so no heat-affected zone was remained in finished surface. Pulse YAG laser and CW Laser diode were employed for heat source, and the parameters such as laser power, pulse durations and position of radiation were varied and the variations of cutting performances such as cutting force, tool life and surface finish were studied.