Laser surface texturing-based hybrid micro-milling of Ti6Al4V alloy.

Ti6Al4V alloy has been widely used in aerospace and medical fields due to its advantages in superb high strength-to-weight ratio and biocompatibility. However, the hard machinability of Ti6Al4V alloy seriously affects the surface integrity and performance of components. This paper adopts a hybrid process of picosecond laser ablation and micro-milling to fabricate a high-quality U-shape groove on a Ti6Al4V alloy surface. Material removal mechanisms under a single micro-milling process and hybrid process are obtained through experiments and simulations. Picosecond laser ablation with material removal is utilized to produce different textures on the workpiece surface prior to the micro-milling process, and the effect of surface textures on the subsequent micro-milling process is revealed. Furthermore, simulation results show that surface textures ablated by picosecond laser can directly reconstruct the axial cutting depth of micro-milling, thus converting continuous chip forming into an intermittent process and effectively reducing the cutting force. This study offers a promising process to effectively improve the machining performance of hard-to-machine materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]