Investigation of surface roughness in laser-assisted hard turning of AISI 4340

Abstract

In recent years, new materials such as titanium, nickel alloys, and high-strength steels have been widely used in medical, nuclear, and other industries. Since the manufacturing of different components from these materials has always been associated with the machining process, the use of hard machining in their production is unavoidable. The short life of the cutting tool, the poor quality of the machined surfaces, and the long machining time are some of the challenging issues involved in the traditional machining of these materials. Therefore, researchers have investigated new machining techniques to increase the efficiency and quality of produced parts. Thermal-assisted machining, especially laser-assisted machining is one of the promising methods of machining difficult-to-machine materials. However, this process faces some challenges in terms of the achievable surface integrity of the machined surfaces. This research studies the effect of cutting and thermal parameters on the surface roughness in the laser-assisted turning (LAT) process of AISI 4340 hard steel with a hardness of 560 HV. The results illustrated that by selecting a proper combination of process parameters, the damage caused by the heat penetration into the workpiece can be minimized and the advantages of LAT can be benefited from. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.