Experimental study on laser assisted micro-milling based on the evolution of Ti6Al4V chip morphology

Laser assisted machining is an effective methods to improve the machinability of titanium alloy. Laser assisted micro-milling is often used in the cutting of difficult-to-machine materials. In this paper, variations of chip morphology and cutting force both in micro-milling and LAMM on Ti6Al4V were studied experimentally. It showed that, with the increase of feed per tooth, serration of chip becomes more and more prominent in both micro-milling and LAMM. Similar regularity can be found as cutting speed increases. When took the same feed per tooth or cutting speed, the cutting force amplitude measured in LAMM is much lower than that in micro-milling. And the sawtooth degree is also lower than that in micro-milling. The reason for these conclusions is that material soften by laser heating makes it easy to cut, which induced both non-prominent serration on chips and lower cutting forces needed.