Experimental Investigations of Microcracks in Laser-induced Cracking Turning Alumina Ceramic

Laser-assisted machining (LAM), defined as a hot machining process, combines laser technology with traditional machining method for improving material removal rates. It can reduce the cutting force and improve the processing efficiency of hard-to-wear materials, especially engineering ceramics. To enhance the processing precision of alumina ceramic turning, this article presents the results of an experimental study of a two-step laser-assisted turning process including laser-induced thermal cracking and turning. This study investigates the distribution of microcracks for different process parameters. Comparing with the results, it is observed that the mechanism of crack formation and crack types are different. The cracks are caused by thermal stress and mechanical stress, separately. Based on uniform design, a back propagation neural network model is developed to map the complex nonlinear relationship between process parameters and processing requirements. The results show that the model is an effective t...