Evaluation of parameters for application of Laser Surface Texturing (LST) in tooling for the sheet-metal forming process

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of microcavities, diameter and depth, in tribological performance, of the application of laser surface texturing (LST) and LST gradient (LSTG) techniques, to understand and define the critical parameters of these techniques in sheet-metal forming tools. Design/methodology/approach The paper studies the effect of studied critical parameters of LST and LSTG techniques, on block-on-ring configuration for tribology evaluation. Experimental design parameters for LST and LSTG are proposed and evaluated for the best tribology performance (COF and wear). Findings The results show that the application of optimized LST process could represent a 42 per cent improvement on the COF and up to 86 per cent enhancement in the COF results for the LSTG application. Practical implications The results show that LST and LSTG techniques present significant positive effects on the tribological properties of sheet-metal forming materials. Originality/value This demonstrates the potential of LST technique applied to industrial tooling, and the LSTG pattern which further increases the benefits obtained with the LST technique, particularly in which friction and wear areas are critical. A response surface map is developed to determine the control parameters which are useful for the tooling design. These techniques could be used for metal-forming applications like deep-drawing, achieving an increased tool life.

Improvement of Tribological Properties through the Application of Laser Surface Texturing and Nanolubricants in CNC Equipment Elements

“…Similar results are presented by the author in previous developments using LST and NP´s technics in which the values of COF and wear (in laboratory probes, tools or machine elements) was improved [3,13,16,[19][20].…”

“…In the LST tests, an optimal texturing pattern was defined (hole diameter and depth), based on previous tribological investigations performed to evaluate wear resistance in laboratory probes [16]. There were identified the best cases of wear performance for circles pattern with a density of 16 % of applied area, represented in Fig.…”

“…Best cases of wear performance. Diameters and depths of micro cavities with optimal wear results in laboratory probes[16].…”

State of the Art of Surface Texturing for Biotribology Applications

“…The modification of the chemical composition can occur when the photons of the laser beam have enough energy to break the chemical bonds of the material [15]. This highly adaptable technique uses a computer-controlled laser to generate cavities on the surface of a material, some of the parameters that can be manipulated for the generation of these cavities are the dimensions of the geometry, laser power, frequency, pulse duration and scanning speed [16,17]. There is a variant of the LST, named Masked Laser Surface Texturing (MLST), where a mask is placed and fixed on top of the surface of the material to be textured, the mask acts as a filter preventing the passage of a portion of the laser beam on the sample, in order to draw the texturized patterns [18].…”

“…The preference for the use of dimples can be attributed to the fact that it is a relatively easy geometry to texturize, in addition to this, dimple textures have proven to be effective in tribological applications, reaching COF reductions of up to 80% compared to non-textured sliding surfaces [8]. Some of the most important characteristics of the geometries are the texture density, which can be defined as the portion of the surface that the cavities occupy, some authors affirm that the optimum density for tribology applications is 16% [17]. [32] * In some publications wear tests were carried out with different geometries or varying the characteristics of the cavities, the COF difference presented is the one obtained from the best performer of each investigation.…”