Fibre Laser Spiral Microgrooving of Aluminium
O. F. Biswas, A. Sen, G. Kibria, B. Doloi and B. Bhattacharyya
Laser spiral microgrooving is a new technology for the micromachining of advanced engineering materials like Al2O3, ZrO2, Al2TiO5, AlN, etc. Due to better accuracy, nowadays the micromachining of aluminium is widely used in various industries. This paper details the study of laser spiral microgrooving process on cylindrical shaped pure aluminium. In this study average power, pulse frequency and workpiece rotational speed are considered as the process variables. The mathematical formulations of laser spiral microgrooving process which correlate the different process parameters and spacing between two consecutive microgrooves have been developed. The geometrical dimensions of the microgroove like groove width and groove depth are measured by using an optical microscope. Microscopic images of microgrooves using high resolution optical microscope are also studied to examine the effect of several process variables on the spiral microgroove dimensions.
Keywords: Fibre laser, aluminium, Al, spiral microgrooving, micromachining, process parameters