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Surface finish improvement of LMD samples using laser polishing

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DOI: 10.1080/17452759.2010.528180

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Surface finish improvement of LMD samples using laser polishing

Sasan Dadbakhsha; Liang Haoa; Choon Yen Kongb
a
College of Engineering, Computing and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK b TWI
Technology Centre, Laser and Sheet Processes Group, Rotherham, UK

Online publication date: 08 November 2010

To cite this Article Dadbakhsh, Sasan , Hao, Liang and Kong, Choon Yen(2010) 'Surface finish improvement of LMD
samples using laser polishing', Virtual and Physical Prototyping, 5: 4, 215 — 221
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 Virtual and Physical Prototyping, Vol. 5, No. 4, December 2010, 215
221

Surface finish improvement of LMD samples using laser polishing

Sasan Dadbakhsha*, Liang Haoa and Choon Yen Kongb

a
College of Engineering, Computing and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QF, UK
b
TWI Technology Centre, Laser and Sheet Processes Group, Rotherham, UK

(Received 24 September 2010; final version received 17 September 2010)

Laser metal deposition (LMD) is an additive manufacturing (AM) process used for
repairing and fabricating metallic parts. One of the major drawbacks of this process is the
relatively rough surface of the manufactured parts. In this work, surface polishing using
laser for LMD parts was studied. Using the LMD process, a series of block samples of
Inconel 718 were produced. The top surface of the samples was then laser scanned using
combinations of parameters. The surface roughness of the samples was evaluated and
subsequently, optimum process parameters set for laser polishing were predicted using
analytical experimental design (DoE) software. The results showed the capability of a
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010

laser to improve the finishing surface of the LMD parts to about 2 mm Ra, which can be
acceptable for many industrial applications. The relation of laser energy to final surface
roughness was also studied, showing the strong dependency of surface finish on laser
energy.

Keywords: surface roughness; laser polishing; laser metal deposition (LMD); design of
experiments (DoE); laser energy

1. Introduction stereo-lithography and laser cladding, and provides the

Laser metal deposition (LMD) has received significant
attention in recent years due to its consistency and reliable
operation, adopted in various industries involved in metallic
coating, repairing high-value components, rapid prototyp-
ing, and low-volume manufacturing. The LMD manufac-
tured parts are almost fully dense with good metallurgical
properties, which arise from rapid solidification, meeting the
requirement for direct usage (Toyserkani and Khajepour
2006, Long et al. 2008, Wen et al. 2009). Several commercia-
lised LMD processes exist, including laser-engineered net
shaping (LENS), directed-light fabrication (DLF), direct
metal deposition (DMD) and laser additive manufacturing
(LAM) (Kelly and Kampe 2004). In LMD processes, powder
is usually fed into a laser-heated spot to form a melt pool,
being solidified quickly after the laser beam moves away
(Wen et al. 2009). In fact, LMD incorporates the features of
ability to fabricate complex metal components directly
from CAD files without intermediate steps or the usage of
forming dies, tooling or machining. The LMD’s one step
manufacturing ability is an advantage that can significantly
reduce investment and component cost (Kelly and Kampe
2004). However, one of the major drawbacks of this process is
the relatively rough surface of the manufactured parts which
necessitates the need for post polishing treatments increasing
the final cost. Although surface roughness can be improved
using smaller deposit bead and layer thickness, this practice
has a negative impact on the business case due to a slow
production turnaround.
Finishing operations on large metallic surfaces constitute
major processes within the industry. The final polishing
operations such as grit blasting and mechanical grinding are
usually carried out manually by skilled workers, leading to

*Corresponding author. Email: s.dadbakhsh@ex.ac.uk

Virtual and Physical Prototyping

ISSN 1745-2759 print/ISSN 1745-2767 online # 2010 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/17452759.2010.528180
 216 S. Dadbakhsh et al.

higher production costs. So, any improvement of the surface
finish of manufactured parts is significant to reduce the
production costs and subsequently to satisfy a highly
competitive global market (Ukar et al. 2010).
Due to rapid development of laser technology over the
last decade, new manufacturing processes such as laser
polishing using highly focused laser beams have been
developed. Consequently, new research activities have
been carried out to study the application of electron beam
irradiation in order to polish the surface based on melting a
microscopic surface layer. The laser polishing process,
instead of electron beam, uses a laser beam as the heat
source to achieve a smooth topography (Ukar et al. 2010).
Laser polishing is a new technique, and appears to be an
attractive alternative for conventional abrasive methods.
This method is a non-contact process and would facilitate
the automation of the polishing process. To date, laser
polishing has been mainly used for the polishing of
diamond and optical articles (such as glasses, lens, fibres,
etc.) (Bol’shepaev and Katomin 1997, Wang et al. 2003), but
it has rarely been used for polishing of metals (Shao et al.
2005, Lamikiz et al. 2007, Perry et al. 2009, Ukar et al.
2010). However, some research carried out on metallic
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010
of test blocks of 15152 mm was deposited onto a
stainless steel substrate. The deposition trials and laser
polishing were carried out using a Trumpf DMD505 laser
deposition system with a 1.8 kW HQ CO2 laser unit, installed
at TWI Ltd (UK). During processing, the powder was
uniformly fed into a co-axial nozzle, deposition is undertaken
from the inverted apex of the powder stream leaving
the nozzle, between the annulus of the inner and outer cones.
This is schematically shown in Figure 1. This process was
carried out using localised argon shielding to prevent
oxidation.
There are many variables in the DMD machine influen-
cing the microstructure and mechanical properties of the
resulting part, such as laser power, powder feed rate, beam
feed rate (laser scanning speed), laser beam spot diameter
and etc. A combination of DMD parameters of laser
power 450 W (340 W at the work-piece), beam feed
rate1200 mm/min, and powder feed rate 2.5 g/min,
beam spot diameter0.5 mm, and track spacing0.4 mm
(35% overlap) were used to deposit an array of 18 Inconel
blocks. After that, laser scanning was carried out on the
deposited parts, using the parameters shown in Table 1, and
each block received two scans. Among all the deposited

materials has shown promising results for laser polishing. parts, one part was not laser scanned to remain as the
For example, Lamikiz et al. (2007) developed a surface reference or as-deposited state. The visual image of
finishing method for parts made by selective laser sintering deposited parts after the polishing operation is shown in
technique from a commercial alloy composed of sintered Figure 2 (sample 18 is the reference with no surface
stainless steel and infiltrated bronze. The results showed polishing).
that the roughness can be reduced up to 80% of initial
roughness. However, the application of laser polishing to
the surfaces of metallic materials should be further devel-
oped to enhance the usage of laser techniques for part
manufacture.
The objective of this study is to examine the feasibility
and effects of LMD laser system and corresponding
processing parameters on the surface polishing. On the
other hand, Inconel alloys are very hard and difficult to be
polished by conventional techniques, while their production
using LMD techniques is increasing. Accordingly, the
surface polishing of the Inconel samples using laser ability
was the subject of this study. To do so, a series of block
samples of Inconel 718 was produced using the LMD
process. The top surface of the samples was laser scanned
using a combination of laser power, scanning speed and
beam spot size. The surface roughness of the samples was
evaluated and subsequently, optimum process parameters
for laser polishing were predicted using analytical experi-
mental design (DoE) software.

2. Material and experimental procedure

Figure 1. The schematic of LMD process, in which the
Commercially available gas-atomised Inconel 718 powder deposition is undertaken at the tool centre point, courtesy
was supplied with a particle size range of 20
50 mm. An array of TWI.
 Virtual and Physical Prototyping 217

Table 1. The laser parameters used for surface polishing of 3. Results and discussion
LMD parts
The parts produced by commercial LMD machines such as
Test no. Power (W) Beam feed rate (mm/min) Beam spot size (mm) DMD often require further post-processing operations to
reach acceptable part surface finish. The surface finish of a
1 400 1263 0.7
2 400 1000 0.3 part can even be critical in many applications because it can
3 500 800 1.0 induce catastrophic failure from surface initiated cracking
4 400 1000 0.7
(Mumtaz and Hopkinson 2010) and may be required to
5 300 1200 0.5
6 300 800 0.5 achieve adequate geometrical accuracy (Brinksmeier et al.
7 400 1000 1.1 2004). Generally, the top surface of a solidified melt pool
8 500 1200 0.5
may exhibit an undulating and rough texture (see sample 18
9 300 800 1.0
10 400 1000 0.7 (reference for as-deposited state) in Figure 2). Repetition of
11 532 1000 0.7 laser scanning can influence the surface finish since the
12 500 1200 1.0
13 268 1000 0.7
surface of material can be remelted, evaporated, or fused,
14 500 800 0.5 depending on the material itself and the laser parameters
15 300 1200 1.0 (Bol’shepaev and Katomin 1997, Lamikiz et al. 2007). With
16 400 1000 0.7
17 400 737 0.7
regard to this phenomenon, a repeat scanning on the
18 (Ref.)


surface of Inconel samples was performed which changed
the surface quality, in contrast with sample 18 (Ref.), which
was an untouched sample after LMD fabrication: the latter
shows a clearly rougher surface compared to other samples
The surface roughness was measured by using a Talys- shown in Figure 2. The surface roughness was evaluated
can-150 (Taylor Hobson Precision Ltd.) with a non-contact and Figure 3 presents the surface roughness parameters of
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010

laser probe to measure any vertical displacement. The tests the parts after laser polishing. As expected, the overall
measured the roughness in both 2D and 3D mode. The 2D surface roughness of the samples after additional laser
measurements were performed in a 5 mm line in X-direction scanning is effectively lower than that of the as-deposited
(perpendicular to the deposition tracks) as well as Y- one (sample 18), showing the effectiveness of polishing
direction (along the tracks). The 2D roughness parameter process using additional laser scanning. For example, it can
of Ra was reported from the average of at least four be seen that the roughness parameters of the initial surface
measurements for each sample. On the other hand, the (sample 18), Ra (X)9.85 mm, Ra (Y) 7.41 mm and Sa 
3D measurements were carried out on an area of 55 mm, 23.5 mm, are, respectively, 374, 286 and 185% higher than
providing a 3D profile and surface roughness parameter of those of sample 3. The corresponding profiles of these
Sa. Ra and Sa are, in fact, the arithmetic average of the 2D
and 3D roughness profiles, respectively, demonstrating the
magnitude of surface roughness. Finally, a statistical design
of experiments (based on analytical software Design
Expert† ) was used to assess the effect of different proces-
sing parameters on the laser polishing of the laser deposited
samples.

Figure 2. Visual appearance of the surface finish after laser Figure 3. 2D (Ra) and 3D (Sa) roughness parameters of
polishing of Inconel LMD parts (sample 18 is the reference laser polished surface (sample 18 (Ref.) is the sample that
with no surface polishing). was untouched after fabrication).
 218 S. Dadbakhsh et al.
samples are shown in Figure 4 for giving a comparative
physical idea in 2D and 3D between the mentioned samples.
The results of these tests produced a good basis for DoE
generation to investigate the trend of Ra responses to laser
polishing. So, the DoE diagrams for Ra (X-direction) were
obtained using factors of laser power and scanning speed
with different beam spot sizes of 1.0, 0.7 and 0.3 mm,
respectively. The results, shown in Figure 5, illustrate that
the surface quality is improved using 500 W laser power and
800 mm/min speed. Comparing Figure 5a
c shows that the
beam spot size (in the range of 0.3
1.0 mm) is not a very
critical factor for surface polishing as compared to stronger
factors like laser power and scanning speed. However, it
does affect the surface quality in such a manner that, beam
spot size of 0.7 mm (Figure 4b) may lead to a better surface
finish which means there is an optimum value for spot size.
This is in confirmation with the work of Aiyiti et al. (2006)
on micro-plasma arc welding, emphasizing overlapping
influence on surface roughness. They explained that not
only big distance between tracks increases the surface
roughness, but also too close tracks lead to a greater
thickness of the latter tracks than former tracks resulting in
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010
a poor surface finish. Therefore, there is an optimum
distance of overlap in order to form a smooth surface
finish. However, the optimum process parameters, predicted
using the DoE, are a laser power of at least 500 W and laser
Figure 4 (Continued)
speed of 800
850 mm/min, which achieve a surface rough-
ness below Ra 2 mm or so.
The laser-polishing process is based on superficial melt-
ing (and/or vaporization) on a microscopic scale followed
by a rapid re-solidification. This leads to filling the
microvalleys through flowing molten material. However,
to achieve a smoother surface, the molten material should
be sufficient to fill the roughness peaks, but not so much as
to destroy the surface quality. Thus, the laser beam energy
must be carefully studied and controlled to successfully melt
a microscopic layer without damaging the surface. The laser
energy density (J/cm2) can be calculated through the
following equation:
6000P
E  (1)
DVf
where P is the laser power (W), D is the beam diameter
(mm) and Vf is the beam feed rate (laser speed) (mm/min)
(Lamikiz et al. 2007, Marinescu et al. 2008, Ukar et al.
2010). Figure 6 plots the experimental surface roughness
measurements vs. the energy density, calculated from
Equation (1) using the parameters of Table 1. The results
show that the increase of laser energy is first accompanied
with sharp reduction in surface roughness until it reaches a
relatively constant level. This is particularly significant since
the laser parameters such as feed rate, laser power and
 Virtual and Physical Prototyping 219

beam diameter can be selected to obtain the maximum
productivity, while they satisfy the optimum laser energy as
well. However, some dispersion in the results can be
observed. This dispersion is natural since the initial surface
topography (as one of the main parameters) can be slightly
different from one sample to another after deposition
process.
To explain the trend of surface roughness with increase of
laser energy, seen in Figure 6, the mechanisms involving the
interaction of the laser with the surface should be studied.
Two main mechanisms taking place during laser processing
are (i) surface shallow melting (SSM) and (ii) surface over
melting (SOM), occurring in different levels according to
material and laser parameters such as power and feed rate.
In the SSM, a thin material layer is melted (happening with
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010
high laser speed). So, the peaks and aggregated spheres of
particles are melted filling valleys in between, resulting in
a smoother surface. SOM, on the other hand, occurs due to
too high energy density. This melts the layers deep down the
surface valleys, resulting in an increase in surface roughness
(Lamikiz et al. 2007, Marinescu et al. 2008). However, in
this work the surface of high melting temperature Inconel
has been scanned using high laser speed. The relatively high
laser speed plus high melting temperature of the material
can restrict the melting to the surface layers. So, the laser
has melted peaks and smoothes valleys of surface (SSM
mechanism), and increasing the laser energy has been useful
to an extent to complete the melting of the surface layers.
After that the higher laser energy can not be very helpful to
further smoothen the surface layer. Further increase in laser

Figure 4. Typical 2D and 3D roughness profiles of (a,c) sample 18 (Ref.) and (b,d) sample 3, respectively.
 220 S. Dadbakhsh et al.
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010
Figure 5. Linear roughness predicted using Design Expert software, using beam spot size of (a) 1.0 mm, (b) 0.7 mm and (c)
0.3 mm.
energy may even damage the substrate surface under strong
laser irradiation as mentioned in SOM mechanism (Hsu
and Lin 2005, Marinescu et al. 2008) (this might be
happening with further laser energies which has not
experimented in this work). However, it should be noted
that the transition between SSM and SOM regimes may
occur when melted layer thickness is much greater than the
peak
valley distance (Ukar et al. 2010).
This study has proved the feasibility of laser surface
polishing of ALM/LMD parts using Inconel materials. It
should be theoretically applicable to a wide range of metals
and alloys, though material behaviour under laser polishing
might be varied. Further development of laser polishing for
other metal systems is subject to future work. Moreover,
this work has demonstrated the laser polishing effect using
flat upward facing surfaces in order to simplify this study.
As laser surface polishing is a non-contact and flexible
technique, it will be able to be integrated with robot or five-
axis system to treat complicated surface geometries. This
promising result of this study has built a good foundation
for future process development.
4. Conclusions
This study has investigated the feasibility of a laser-
polishing process for metallic parts, which opens up
promising perspectives for this technology in many applica-
tions. The results have clearly shown that improvements in
the surface finish of an Inconel 718 produced by LMD was
possible using a proper application of laser to the part
surface. The experimental results have demonstrated the
 Virtual and Physical Prototyping
Figure 6. Roughness characteristics of the surface as a
function of laser energy density.
effective surface improvement by laser polishing, and they
provided the basis for carrying out a DoE experimental
procedure. The optimum process parameters developed by
DoE showed that a laser power of 500 W and a laser speed
Downloaded At: 19:51 8 November 2010
of 800
850 mm/min can effectively reduce the surface
roughness to below Ra 2 mm (an acceptable level for
many applications, including those in aerospace), which is
about 80% less than that of the initial surface roughness. It
also seems that there is an optimum value for beam spot
diameter depending on applied track spacing to form a
smoother surface finish.
The laser energy was shown as a strong factor influencing
surface finish in laser polishing. It was established that
surface roughness reduced significantly with the energy
density reaching a minimum and relatively constant level.
However, the results indicated that after choosing optimum
energy density, parameters such as feed rate, laser power
and spot diameter can be selected to arrive at the optimum
laser energy and obtain the maximum overall productivity.
Although the laser polishing was only applied to Inconel
718 alloy in this work, in principle it should be applicable to
a wide range of metals and alloys. There is much promising
research regarding parameters and mechanisms involved in
laser polishing of different materials. Moreover, this study
only investigated the laser polishing of flat surfaces, while
the effect of laser polishing on different geometries, as well
as sharp edges and corners, represents another fruitful area
for future study.
View publication stats
221
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by an industrial collaborative
research project entitled ‘Added Value by Laser Assisted
Additive Manufacture
AVLAM’. AVLAM project is a
collaboration between the TWI Ltd, University of Exeter,
EADS UK, Bombardier Aerospace plc, TISICS Ltd and
Materialise UK. The Project is managed by TWI Ltd and is
partly funded by the TSB under the Technology Pro-
gramme ref: ‘AB183A’.
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