A Review on Lasers Assisted Machining Methods – Types, Mode of Operations, Comparison and Applications

Materials having high hardness and difficult to cut are becoming more popular in distinct industries such as automobile, aerospace, medical, construction, nuclear, sports and others. Because, hard and difficult to cut materials offered high strength to weight ratio, high resistance against wear, high yield strength, high resistance against corrosion, and ability to retain high strength at elevated temperature. However, the machining of hard and difficult to cut material poses a serious challenge owing to severe tool wear and higher cutting force involved. To overcome this, Laser assisted machining (LAM) has shown to be one of the most promising technologies for cutting difficult-to-cut materials. Hence, the aim of current review paper is to provide an overview on LAM, historical background, basic phenomena of laser generation, properties of lasers, generalized concept of laser- material interaction, types of lasers, distinct modes of laser operations and applications. Finally, the recent advances in laser assisted machining are discussed.