Analyze of Cutting Effect on Ceramic Coated Steels

Abstract Ceramic coating applied to a metallic base increases its properties such as thermos-stability, corrosion resistance and surface hardness. Ceramic materials inherent brittleness properties implies many difficulties in their mechanical machining processes when a proper shape is required, fact that limit their applications. The complex system analyzed in this paper is formed by a metallic substrate and an alumina ceramic layer obtained through atmospheric plasma pulverization. Laser cutting was performed in order to analyze the behavior of the ceramic layer of 30 and respectively 60 µm in the cutting process. Structural, morphological and chemical evaluation of the cutting kerf was realized using optical microscopy (OM+digital camera), scanning electron microscopy (SEM VegaTescan LMH II, SE detector) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS Bruker X-flash). This analysis highlighted the type of defects along the cut, respectively the phenomena occurring at the ceramic - metal interface.