Experimental research on pulse laser assisted micro turning of ZrO2 ceramic

ZrO2 ceramic materials have outstanding propertied, like high wear resistance, good corrosion resistance, low thermal conductivity, etc., and has been widely applied in modern industry. However, ZrO2 ceramic is one of the difficult-to-machine materials, which would lead to rapid tool wear and poor surface quality. Micro turning combined with pulse laser, as a new kind of process in machining ZrO2 ceramic, is studied in this paper. And a comparative research between micro turning with and without pulse laser assisted of ZrO2 ceramic has been conducted. The results revealed that under the same machining parameters, both the cutting force and machined surface roughness obtained in pulse laser assisted micro turning was smaller than that in micro turning without pulse laser, and the pulse laser could effectively reduce the tool wear. The work carried out in this paper would be helpful to the further research on the pulse laser assisted micro machining of ZrO2 ceramic.