Hot Turning of Difficult-to-cut Materials with YAG Laser : 1st Report, Analysis of Temperature Rise in Cutting Region due to Laser Beam Irradiation

Abstract

In order to apply YAG laser to hot turning of difficult to cut materials, it is essential to make clear the temperature rise in the cutting region of a work piece due to irradiation of the laser beam. A theoretical solution has been derived of the temperature rise of an isotropic and homogeneous rectangular parallelepiped, which is a model of hollow round bars in turning, when the laser beam is continuously irradiated ahead the cutting region. Numerical examinations were made of the temperature rises in the cutting region. The temperature rise decreases as an increase in cutting speed. The distance from the laser beam irradiation position to the cutting region should be not greater than five times of the beam diameter, because the temperature rise markedly decreases as an increase in distance. Available equations have been proposed to estimate the maximum temperature rise, heat penetration depth, and average temperature rise.