Hybrid Micromachining and Microfabrication Technologies

3Laser-Assisted Micromilling

Asma Perveen¹*, Sandip Kunar², Golam Kibria³ and Prasenjit Chatterjee⁴

¹Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering & Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Republic of Kazakhstan

²Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aditya Engineering College, Surampalem, India; Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada, Kakinada, East Godavari, India

³Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aliah University, Kolkata, India

⁴Department of Mechanical Engineering, MCKV Institute of Engineering, Howrah, India

Abstract

With the development of materials with superior properties and miniaturization requirement, conventional machining processes face additional challenges due to tool wear, tool stiffness, which gives the motivation for exploring hybrid/sequential machining techniques. In this respect, laser machining has turned out to be one of the wonders in the manufacturing area; however, it also comes with issues, such as heat-affected zone. On the other hand, laser-assisted machining techniques seem to elevate most of the heat-affected zone issue along with severe tool wear issue faced by conventional machining. This chapter discusses motivation, and overview of laser-assisted micromilling. Hard to machine materials, such as, steel alloy, Ti alloy, Ni alloy, cementite carbides, and other ceramics, are investigated using laser-assisted micromilling.

Keywords: Laser, fiber laser, difficult to cut, oxidation, ball end mill, hardness, ...