Stuart Barnes

Richard Morgan
Andrew Skeen
Warwick Manufacturing Group,
School of Engineering,
University of Warwick,
Coventry, England
Effect of Laser Pre-Treatment
on the Machining Performance
of Aluminum/SiC MMC
Although the abrasive reinforcement in MMCs primarily controls their machining behav-
ior, the properties of the matrix also exert an inuence. A 1200 W diode laser was used,
due to the large footprint (50.3 mm) and the short wavelength (0.94 m) to pre-treat a
2618 (18% SiC) alloy. The laser heating and self-quenching of the material modied the
matrix properties. Machining performance was then assessed by measuring tool wear and
edge condition, cutting forces, surface nish, and sub-surface damage. Results indicated
that pre-treatment gave less wear, lower forces, and less sub-surface damage although
abrasion remained the primary wear mechanism. DOI: 10.1115/1.1605112
1 Introduction
The term Metal Matrix Composites MMCs, describes a range
of materials that combine a tough metallic matrix with a hard
ceramic reinforcement to produce composite materials with supe-
rior properties to conventional metallic alloys 1. The potential
benets associated with the use of MMCs derive from their im-
proved specic properties, especially stiffness. MMCs are becom-
ing an increasingly important class of engineering materials that
are nding an increasing number of applications in the automotive
and aerospace industries. In the automotive sector, the MMCs of
most interest are aluminum/SiC alloys due to their light weight
and relatively low cost, e.g., break discs applications 2. In the
aerospace industry however, the use of more advanced MMCs
such as those with a titanium alloy matrix and SiC bres is also
being investigated 3. Although the addition of ceramic reinforc-
ing phases have been shown to produce materials with improved
specic properties, such additions also produce a marked reduc-
tion in machinability and a considerable amount of research has
been conducted in this area 422. When considering conven-
tional machining operations, the machinability of MMCs is gen-
erally regarded as poor due to the very high rates of abrasive wear
experienced by the cutting tools. This high wear rate has been
widely attributed to the hard ceramic particles present in the work-
piece material 4,22. However, some workers 13,23 have also
noted that although it is the reinforcement phase that primarily
controls the machining behavior, the matrix material also has an
inuence. Lane 23 noted that although the reinforcement phase
is extremely important, the matrix constitutes between 70 and
90% of most MMCs and it was concluded that the effect of the
matrix was be signicant. If the matrix material is heat treatable, it
was therefore suggested that machining be carried out after solu-
tion treatment thus allowing the material to be machined in the
soft state prior to subsequent ageing to the required hardness
23. Previous work by one of the authors 13 has shown that the
drilling performance of MMCs varies with the heat treatment con-
dition of the matrix. The work to-date has subjected the entire
workpiece material to a conventional solution treatment and age
process. The work reported here, investigated the possibility of
using a laser to treat the specic volume of material, which was
subsequently going to be removed by the machining operation.
The use of a laser to transformation harden LTH, ferrous ma-
terials is a relatively well established commercial technique used
for hardening of such components as gear teeth and piston rings
24. However, the work on LTH has primarily involved the use of
the CO
2
laser with a defocused beam in order to achieve a spot
size e.g., 3 mm 25, which was large enough to make the treat-
ment of engineering components viable. Unfortunately, although
the defocusing of a CO
2
laser increases the beam footprint, there
remained what the authors describe as a Gaussian-like distribu-
tion of laser energy within the beam 26. Although such a distri-
bution is ideal for cutting applications, a uniform energy distribu-
tion is required for heat treatment. In an attempt to improve this
situation, other workers 27,28 have operated the CO
2
laser in the
so-called doughnut mode (TEM
01
* ) in order to spread the laser
power over a larger area.
High power diode lasers HPDLs have a beam footprint which
is generally line-shaped and can be variable. Ehlers et al. 26
report the use of HPDL with a beam geometry which could be
varied from 2.6 mm11 mm to 2.6 mm22 mm and in addition,
within the line-shaped beam, the power distribution was uni-
form and homogeneous. In relation to heat treatment, another ad-
vantage that the HPDLs have in comparison to the CO
2
lasers is
that their wavelength is shorter 1 m for the diode laser com-
pared to 10.6 m for the CO
2
laser which results in a higher
degree of absorption of the laser radiation by the material that is
being processed. In the specic case of aluminum, it has been
reported that the use of a HPDL with a wavelength of 0.8 m
increased the degree of absorption from the 1.2%, achieved with
the CO
2
laser, to 13% 26. The properties of the HPDL discussed
above therefore suggested that this laser had the potential to heat
treat a large surface area of aluminum MMCs prior to machining
in an attempt to improve the subsequent machining performance.
No published work has been located that investigated the use of
the HPDL to heat treat aluminum alloys. The use of HPDLs to
improve the machining performance of traditional monolithic ce-
ramic materials has been investigated although in this instance the
technique of laser assisted machining was used in order to preheat
the material before it entered the cutting zone 2931. In the
work reported here, the laser processing and the machining opera-
tion were not performed as laser assisted machining. The laser
processing and machining were carried out as two completely
separate operationsthe laser was used to pre-treat the MMC. It
must be acknowledged that this concept was investigated in order
to determine if it was technically possible to achieve an improve-
ment in machining performance. At present, it is not put forward
as an economically viable technique for improving the machin-
ability of MMC materials.
2 Experimental Procedure
2.1 Materials. The workpiece material consisted of a 2618
aluminum alloy matrix composition: 0.24% Si, 1% Fe, 2.6% Cu,
1.5% Mg, and 1% Ni to which 18% of silicon carbide with a
Contributed by the Materials Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF ENGI-
NEERING MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received by the Materials
Division January 10, 2003; revision received June 17, 2003. Associate Editor: A.
Pelegri and A. Karlsson.
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particle size of between 10 and 15 m had been added, Fig. 1. A
metal spraying technique that simultaneously deposited the alumi-
num alloy and the silicon carbide particles, i.e., the cospray tech-
nique, had been used to produce the material. The material was
then extruded and supplied as slabs measuring 15010025 mm
thick. Before any trials were performed, 0.5 mm was machined
from surface of the slabs to remove the layer of unreinforced alloy
that was present.
The cutting tools used for the machining trials were 6 mm
diameter, M42 two ute slot drills. High-speed steel HSS cutting
tools were selected as it was recognized that they would wear
rapidly when machining MMCs and hence the inuence of the
various laser pre-treatments could be evaluated using a relatively
small amount of workpiece material. When engaged in the cut, the
complete length of the cutting edges were in contact with the
workpiece and consequently subject to wear. Therefore, there was
no un-worn cutting edge from which to measure the tool wear. In
order to overcome this problem and allow accurate measurement
of the tool wear, datum points were marked on a clearance face of
each cutter which was not affected by the machining operation
using a CO
2
laser, Fig. 2. The location of these datum points
relative to the cutting edges was measured using the equipment
discussed below before any machining took place. After each
machining trial, measuring the extent of the wear relative to
the datum points then enabled an accurate assessment of wear to
be made.
2.2 Equipment and Experimental Setup. The general ar-
rangement of the laser processing facility is shown in Fig. 3. The
laser used was a ROFIN-SINAR 1200 W direct diode laser with a
beam footprint of 50.3 mm. The output of the laser was cali-
brated prior to use and all power values quoted represent power
levels at the workpiece. No additional lenses were used and the
working distance was set at 90 mm such that the laser beam was
focused on the surface of the workpiece. In order to avoid prob-
lems with any laser light reected from the workpiece re-entering
the laser a recognized problem when processing aluminum the
laser head must be inclined at an angle to the vertical. This angle
is determined for the working distance and the diameter of the
nal lens and in this instance was set at 10 deg. A nominal ow of
nitrogen gas was directed into the processing area to avoid any
smoke particles that were produced from depositing on the cover
glass that protected the output optics of the laser.
The machining trials were performed on a CNC machining cen-
ter that was instrumented with a Kistler piezo-electric force dyna-
mometer, charge ampliers and an analogue to digital converter,
which fed the force measurements into a computer for display and
storage. Following the machining trials, the wear generated on the
tools was measured using a digital readout x-y table utilizing the
datum marks discussed earlier, as points of reference.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Initial Series of Laser Processing Trials. During the
rst series of laser processing trials the power was varied from
800 to 1200 W and the processing speed from 50 to 200 mm/min.
Fig. 2 General view of the 6 mm diameter cutting tool showing
a the datum point, b the location of ank wear, and c re-
gression wear measurements
Fig. 3 Experimental setup showing the laser positioned above
the CNC controlled xy table onto which the workpiece was
located
Fig. 1 Microstructure of the MMC workpiece material showing
angular Silicon Carbide SiC particles in an aluminum alloy
matrix
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However, when examined, there were no visible differences in the
microstructure or variations in the microhardness. In addition, an
observation was made that the temperature of the workpiece did
not signicantly increase during processing. The parameters used
in this trial were, from previous experience 32 easily capable of
melting steel and other high temperature melting point materials.
Consequently, although reported in the literature that the use of a
HPDL eliminates the need for absorption-increasing coatings 26,
only a small percentage of the energy was coupling with the work-
piece and being converted into heat.
3.2 Laser Processing With an Absorption-Increasing
Coating. Previous work performed by the authors 32 using the
diode laser supported the statement made by Ehlers et al. 21 that
the use of absorption-increasing coatings was not required with
the HPDL. However, it is also recognized that the problem reec-
tion is more acute in the case of aluminum than other materials. A
decision was therefore made to modify the surface of the work-
piece prior to the laser processing in order to increase the percent-
age of the laser energy absorbed. First, the surface was swab-
etched with a solution of 30 cc HCl, 15 cc HF, and 55 cc of water
a macro etch used with aluminum in order to roughen the sur-
face on a microscopic scale. Second, the surface was spray
painted in matt black paint, a technique that is often used to in-
crease absorption. All subsequent trials were performed on these
etched and painted surfaces.
The second series of trials was then performed using a laser
power of 1200 W and processing speeds of 500, 1000, 2000 mm/
min at room temperature and 1000 mm/min at liquid nitrogen
temperaturethe order of magnitude increase in the processing
speeds followed ranging trials which demonstrated the substantial
effect that the pre-treatment of the surface had on the absorption
of laser energy. However, the temperature rise which now took
place during processing implied that the efciency of the self-
quench may be compromised. In order to negate the effect of this
progressive heating during the laser processing, one sample was
cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature 196C prior to process-
ing with the laser.
The second series of samples were sectioning at 90 deg to the
processing direction and prepared for metallurgical examination.
In this instance a clearly visible HAZ was observed in all cases,
Fig. 4 shows a typical example. Examination of the HAZ at higher
magnication indicated that the matrix microstructure had recrys-
tallized into a ne equiaxed grain structure, which extended from
the surface of the sample to a depth in the order of 75% of the
HAZ. Although coupling of the laser energy was now obviously
more efcient and the workpiece was being heated to the point of
recrystallization, no evidence of melting or the associated forma-
tion of the detrimental needle-like phase was observed. This
needle-like phase, which has been observed by the authors when
processing these MMC materials with the CO
2
and Nd:YAG la-
sers, Fig. 5, has been identied as Al
4
C
3
formed by the dissolu-
tion of SiC particles 33,34. The SiC particles were therefore not
affected by the laser processing.
In order to quantify the effect that the laser processing had on
the matrix material, hardness proles were produced through each
HAZ at 90 deg to the surface, Fig., 4. A load of 50 g and an
indentation spacing of 0.1 mm were used for all microhardness
tests. The original intention of the laser processing was to reduce
the hardness of the matrix material in the HAZ by the process of
solution treatment. However, the microstructural features which
are associated with the solution treatment and ageing process in
aluminum alloys are so small typically several nanometres that
they are difcult to image even with transmission electron micros-
copy TEM 35,36. Consequently, the hardness test is generally
used as an indication of heat treatment condition. However, the
fact that the matrix material in the HAZ had recrystallized intro-
duced another factor that affects the strength and hardness of the
material. If the grain size of a material is reduced, the strength is
increased as indicated by the Hall-Petch equation 35,36. Conse-
quently, any reduction in hardness due to solution treatment would
have been masked by the increase in hardness due to the reduction
in grain size. A more detailed metallurgical examination would be
needed to determine the relative magnitude of the two factors.
Nevertheless, it was clear that hardening due to a reduction in the
grain size had taken place, and the new grain structure was free
from the numerous particles that were present in the as-extruded
condition, which indicates that they had been taken into solution
in the aluminum matrix.
The data from the hardness proles produced when laser treat-
ing the etched samples at 1200 W is presented graphically in Fig.
6. The average hardness of the matrix material in the as-received
condition as-extruded is included as a straight line at 110 HV50
g. The individual proles are difcult to follow within the rst 1
mm of the surface and therefore Fig. 7 shows this area of the
proles in more detail. It can be seen that in general, the hardness
of the matrix material decreased within the rst 1 mm below the
surface. Within the rst 0.5 mm of the surface it can be seen that
the laser processing had, in all cases, increased the hardness of the
matrix material compared to the untreated material. Between 0.5
and 1.0 mm below the surface, the matrix material laser treated at
2000 mm/min and 1000 mm/min at liquid nitrogen temperature
had been softened to a hardness less than the as-received material.
The 500 mm/min sample continued to exhibit a hardness above
that of the as-received material and the hardness of the sample
laser treated at 1000 mm/min at room temperature fell below
that of the as-received material, but at a depth of 0.7 mm. At
depths in excess of 1.5 mm, Fig. 6, it can be seen that the matrix
Fig. 4 Microsection showing the HAZ after laser treatment and
the location of the hardness prole
Fig. 5 Needle-like Al
4
C
3
phase produced during Nd:YAG
processing
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material in the sample laser treated at 2000 mm/min was unaf-
fected by the laser and exhibited an as-received hardness. The
sample processed at 1000 mm/min at liquid nitrogen temperature
also exhibited hardness levels close to that of the as-received ma-
terial, over this range of depths. In contrast, laser processing at
500 mm/min and 1000 mm/min at room temperature had reduced
the hardness of the matrix material to a depth in excess of 5 mm.
The general features of the observed hardness proles, i.e., an
increase in hardness at the surface followed by a zone of reduced
hardness before a return to the as-received hardness, can be ex-
plained in terms of the recrystallization which was observed close
to the surface of the samples, which would harden the matrix, and
the fact that beyond the region where the temperature was high
enough to cause recrystallization, exposure to such temperatures
would overage any precipitates present and reduce the hardness.
The fact that the matrix material in the samples processed at 2000
mm/min and at 1000 mm/min at liquid nitrogen temperature re-
turned to that of the as-received material at shallower depths than
those processed at 500 and 1000 mm/min was due to the increased
heat input at these slower processing speedsthe observation that
the sample processed at liquid nitrogen temperature behaved more
like the one processed at 2000 mm/min in this respect was due to
the fact that a signicant amount of heat would obviously be
required in order to raise the material from 196C to room tem-
perature, which is the temperature at which the other samples
started. The effect of processing speed on the depth to which the
matrix material was hardened relative to the as-received material,
i.e., above 110 HV50 g, is shown in Fig. 8. As would be ex-
pected, the depth of hardening recrystallization reduced as the
processing speed increased due to the associated reduction in the
heat input. The heat input being required to provide the energy for
recrystallisation hence the depth was also decreased when pro-
cessing was carried out at 196C as discussed above.
3.3 Machining Trials. All machining trials were performed
at a cutting speed of 19 m/min 1000 rpm with a feed rate of 100
mm/min, a depth of cut of 1 mm and a cut length of 60 mm. The
machining operation therefore produced a 1 mm deep, 6 mm wide
slot in the workpiece material, Fig. 9. Machining trials were per-
formed on material in the as-received material and in each of the
laser pre-treatment conditions. For each condition, two machining
trials were performed each with a new cutting tool and average
values calculated for all results.
The general appearance of a worn cutting tool is shown in Fig.
10 and an SEM image of the wear land in Fig. 11. The datum
points are visible in addition to the smooth worn area. As previ-
ously reported 4,22 the wear mechanism was one of abrasion
caused by the SiC particles. The observed wear mechanism, in
addition to the location and shape of the wear land, remained
consistent throughout all the tools examined, only the size of the
wear land varied with pre-treatment condition.
Figure 12 shows the variation in ank wear and cutting edge
regression Fig. 10 generated when machining each workpiece
material. It can be seen that the workpiece materials which were
Fig. 6 Microhardness proles from samples laser processed
at 1200 W
Fig. 7 First 1 mm of the microhardness proles shown in
Fig. 6
Fig. 8 Variation in hardening depth with processing speed
Fig. 9 Section of machined workpiece material showing ma-
chined groove going right to left
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pre-treated at 1000 and 2000 mm/min exhibited no improvement
in tool wear compared to the reference, untreated material. In
contrast, the workpiece materials pre-treated at 500 mm/min and
1000 mm/min at liquid nitrogen temperature exhibited a reduction
in the amount of ank wear of 48% and 56%, respectively and
corresponding reductions in the cutting edge regression of 43%
and 42%, the complete set of data is presented in Table 1. How-
ever, the hardness data in Fig. 12 also demonstrates that this im-
provement in wear rate was not achieved by a simple reduction in
the hardness of the matrix material as there is relatively little
difference 45 points Vickers between all the conditions at the
depth on machining, 1 mm and the workpiece processed at 500
mm/min was nominally the same hardness as the as-extruded ma-
terial.
The cutting forces generated during the trials indicated that the
tools that exhibited the least wear generated the lowest cutting
forces, which is as would be expected. Figure 13 shows selected
data from the feed force results obtained and it can be seen that
the two pre-treatments that gave the lowest tool wear 500 mm/
min and 1000 mm/min at liquid nitrogen generated feed forces
noticeably lower than the untreated material. Although not shown,
the feed forces generated when machining materials which gave
little or no reduction in tool wear were similar to the forces shown
for the untreated materialif all the data were included the graph
becomes unreadable. The data obtained for the vertical cutting
forces followed the same trend.
The machined surfaces were examined in the scanning electron
microscope SEM and were typical of a machined surface pro-
duced by this type of milling operation. However, some features
associated with the machining of this type of MMC were also
Fig. 10 Low magnication SEM image of a worn cutting tool
with arrow indicating the wear land
Fig. 11 SEM image of the wear land on a worn cutting
tool. Area A shows an abrasive wear land and area B adherent
material.
Fig. 12 Variation of ank wear, cutting edge regression
and normalized matrix hardness with laser pre-treatment
parameters
Table 1 Variation in tool wear relative to the as-received
material
Processing speed,
mm/min
Percentage reduction in wear
relative to untreated, %
Wear land Cutting edge
Untreated
500 48 43
1000 0 10
2000 2 1
1000 196C 56 42
Fig. 13 Feed force data for selected laser pre-treatments
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observed, i.e., damage caused by the pulling-out of SiC particles,
Fig. 14. This is a well-documented phenomenon 7 caused by the
fact that the cutting tool material is not capable of cutting the
individual SiC particles; therefore, in certain instances this results
in particles being pulled out of the surrounding matrix. The extent
of this damage was comparable with that observed in other work
on this material and not affected by the pre-treatment operation.
Surface integrity and sub-surface damage is known to be an issue
when machining MMC materials and the degree of damage is
strongly dependent on the sharpness of the cutting edge with worn
cutting tools generating a good roughness average Ra value at
the same time as a substantial amount of sub-surface damage 16.
Examination of the machined grooves in the SEM also showed
a progressive increase in the quantity of material which was being
smeared up the side of the groove as tool wear increased, Fig. 15.
The examination of metallographic sections taken from the ma-
chined groves at 90 deg to the machining direction illustrated the
difference in sub-surface damage caused by machining with sharp
and worn cutting tools, Fig. 16. The optical microscopy clearly
shows that the material that was observed to be smeared up the
sides of the grooves of the samples during the SEM analysis was
made-up of severely plastically deformed material, which con-
tained particles of SiC which had been fractured and were visibly
smaller than the SiC particles in the adjacent material.
4 Conclusions
The work reported here has demonstrated that from a technical
point of view, the HPDL can be used to pre-treat the surface of an
aluminum based MMC in order to improve the machining perfor-
mance of that material when machined with HSS cutting tools.
However, the work has also demonstrated the complex nature of
the interactions between the factors that control the behavior of
Fig. 14 Damaged SiC particles on the machined surface
Fig. 15 Smeared material on the sidewall of the machined grooves a new and b worn tool
Fig. 16 Optical micrographs of the features shown in Fig. 14.
The absence of subsurface damage and fractured SiC particles
produced by the new tool can be seen in a and in contrast to
the damage caused by a worn tool in b.
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workpiece material in the cutting zone and the interactions be-
tween workpiece material and the cutting tool. There was no cor-
relation between the hardness of the matrix at a depth below the
surface equivalent to the depth-of-cut and the machinability of the
material. The matrix hardness at this depth only varied by 18
points Vickers, i.e., from 94 to 112 HV50 g, but the variation in
tool wear observed ranged from an increase of 2% to a reduction
of 56%.
Although the initial intention of the work was to reduce the
hardness of the matrix material by a solution treatment which
would soften the matrix, the most noticeable effect of the laser
pre-treatment was the recrystallization of the matrix material
which resulted in a reduction in the grain size and a corresponding
increase in strength due to the Hall-Petch relationship. When ex-
amined under the optical microscope, the microstructure within
this recrystallized region was free from precipitates and as the
untreated matrix contained large quantities of visible precipitates,
this indicates that the laser processing has also solution treated the
material.
As was discussed above, this work set-out to determine if im-
provements in machinability were possible via such a pre-
treatment process, as opposed to the commercial viability of such
an operation. Nevertheless, some comments can now be made on
the commercial viability based on the need to etch the sample
workpiece to improve absorption of the laser energy, parameters
needed to generate a HAZ in the MMC, the depth of that HAZ
and the degree of improvement in machinability obtained. The
depth of the HAZ produced by the laser effectively controls the
depth of cut that could be taken in a single pass of the cutting tool.
With 1200 W of power, it was anticipated that this depth would be
relatively small, hence the 1 mm depth-of-cut. However, some of
the pre-treatments affected the material to a depth in excess of 5
mm although machining trials would need to be performed in
order to determine if the effect was benecial. Also, the depth of
HAZ achievable with higher power diode lasers would obviously
be increased, as would the processing speeds that are possible
29. Although the factors discussed above may be mitigated to
some extent by the use of a higher powered laser, the need to etch
the surface in order to enable the laser energy to be absorbed is
something that could not be carried out as part of a laser assisted
machining processa newly machined surface, as would be pre-
sented to the laser in such an operation, would also be even more
reective due to the lack of oxide coating than a surface which
has been machined previously and had time to become oxidized.
Although it is not suggested that the work reported here has ar-
rived at a technical or economically viable process for machining
MMC materials, it is hoped that the results will form a useful
starting point if this area of research is carried forward in the
future.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Rebecca Stewart for her
assistance with the SEM analysis and Dr. Barnes would also like
to thank The Royal Academy of Engineering for their nancial
assistance with the presentation of this paper at the ASME 2002
International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in
New Orleans.
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384 Vol. 125, OCTOBER 2003 Transactions of the ASME
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