Title: Measurement and assessment of surface roughness for optimisation of laser cutting technology

Authors: Marta Harničárová; Jan Valíček; Radovan Grznárik; Tadeusz Hryniewicz; Milena Kušnerová; Krzysztof Rokosz; Hakan Tozan

Addresses: Nanotechnology Centre, Faculty of Mining and Geology, Institute of Physics, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic ' Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mining and Geology, RMTVC, Faculty of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic ' Nanotechnology Centre, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic ' Division of Surface Electrochemistry and Technology, Koszalin University of Technology, Racławicka 15-17, PL 75-620 Koszalin, Poland ' Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mining and Geology, RMTVC, Faculty of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic ' Division of Surface Electrochemistry and Technology, Koszalin University of Technology, Racławicka 15-17, PL 75-620 Koszalin, Poland ' Turkish Naval Academy, Department of Industrial Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This paper presents an original approach for the optimisation of laser cutting process based on surface topography measurement. The surface roughness carries important information for monitoring of the immediate state of the technological process, material properties and interaction between a laser beam and machined material. A mathematical model was developed, where the surface roughness was taken into account as the most important quantitative criterion for process optimisation. In this investigation, low carbon steel and stainless steel were cut by using a 5 kW carbon dioxide laser. A Talysurf CCI 2000 and Surftest SJ401 measuring instruments were used for the measurement of the surface roughness. In the study, the average surface roughness Ra was considered. The predicted values for optimisation process conditions were in good agreement with experimental data. By applying the surface roughness model, the optimal cutting parameter setting, minimising surface roughness, was determined.

Keywords: surface topography; laser cutting; optimisation; surface roughness; surface quality; low carbon steel; stainless steel.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2015.068234

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2015 Vol.9 No.2/3, pp.264 - 279

Received: 01 Feb 2014
Accepted: 15 Mar 2014
Published online: 26 Mar 2015 *

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