Improvement in machinability characteristics of Ti6Al4V using laser surface texturing of cutting tools with varying geometry of textures

The current research work aims at investigating the influence on dimple type textures of varying dimensions on different machining characteristics of Ti6Al4V, with particular emphasis on cutting forces, tool wear and surface roughness under dry environment. The texture on the WC turning inserts is developed using laser surface texturing technique carried out in a femtosecond laser system. The diameter of texture is varied in the range of 140–400 µm with the corresponding dimple depth in the range of 50–100 µm. In order to understand the effect of textures under different conditions of machining, cutting speeds of 60, 90 and 120 m/min, feeds of 0.1 and 0.25 mm/rev and depth of cuts of 1 and 1.5 mm are utilized in the present study. Textured tools T2 and T3 exhibit reasonably good resistance to edge chipping particularly under the condition of high feed and high depth of cut and are recommended to employ under high feed and depth of cut keeping the cutting speed at low to moderate values. However, the results also indicate that the textured tools with larger diameter (T1, T4 and T5) are more effective in bringing down cutting forces, coefficient of friction and surface roughness particularly at cutting speed of 60 m/min during dry machining of Ti6Al4V. The maximum reduction of 4.30% in main cutting force, 3.96% in coefficient of friction with the textured tool T4, whereas reduction of 60% in surface roughness with the textured tool T1 are recorded. Moreover, texture with higher pitch and lower area ratio is more suited under the condition of higher cutting speed (120 m/min), while the texture with higher area ratio results in lower adhesion of work material during machining under the lower cutting speed of 60 m/min.