Pulse laser pretreated machining
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsRanga Komanduri, Minyoung Lee, Donald G. Flom, Robert A. Thompson, Marshall G. Jones, Robert J. Douglas
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Abstract
An improved laser-assisted machining process has special application to difficult-to-machine materials such as the titanium alloys and high temperature superalloys. A layer of material to be removed by a cutting tool is made weaker by drilling a series of holes using a pulse laser beam ahead of the cutting process so that the tool removes the rest of the weaker material with relative ease. There is a decrease of cutting forces, breakage of the chip to a manageable size, and reduced tool wear.
Claims9
A method of machining a workpiece made of a difficult-to-machine material comprising:
- pretreating the outer surface of the workpiece prior to the cutting process by using a pulse laser beam to drill circumferentially spaced holes in a layer of material to be removed, said holes having a depth no greater than a known depth of cut of a cutting tool;
- and
- rotating said workpiece relative to said cutting tool to remove the layer of material which is weakened by said holes and to generate a segmented chip.
A method of machining a workpiece made of a difficult-to-machine material such as the titanium alloys and high temperature superalloys, comprising:
- rotating the workpiece and pretreating its outer surface prior to the cutting process by using a pulse laser beam to drill a series of radial holes in a layer of material to be removed, said holes having a depth no greater than a known depth of cut of a single-point cutting tool and a diameter greater than an expected chip width;
- and
- removing, with said cutting tool, the pretreated layer of material which has been weakened by said series of holes, and generating a segmented chip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.