Abstract
Aluminum has excellent specific strength, good workability, and light weight. Therefore, the number of applications of aluminum alloy sheets has increased along with that of light-weight machine parts. Laser cutting is conducted at high precision, speed, and efficiency. Unfortunately, heat-affected zones on the laser cutting surface show changes in crystal grains. Moreover, their textures differ from those of other regions. Therefore, we studied crystal grain and texture changes using 1.2-mm-thick laser-processed 1050 and 6022 aluminum alloys as experimental materials. Crystal orientation measurement was performed using an electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) apparatus. Inverse pole figure (IPF) maps and image quality (IQ) maps were measured from the laser cutting center. Microstructures recrystallized by the thermal effect of laser cutting. Then the recrystallization texture developed significantly with increased cutting speed. In addition, 6022 aluminum alloy grains coarsened from the abnormal grain growth by particle stimulated nucleation (PSN). Results show that the thermal effects of laser cutting relaxed the strain of aluminum alloy sheets processed by cold-rolling.
