Modeling and experimental study on cutting forces during pulsed laser-assisted fast tool servo turning free-form glass-ceramics.

Glass-ceramic is widely used in aerospace, bionics, optics and other fields with low expansion and high strength and low dielectric loss, but its hardness and brittleness as well as its high strength have been classified as a kind of difficult-to-process materials. In this paper, free-form machining of glass-ceramic is performed by combining a pulsed laser with fast tool servo (FTS) technology to utilize laser-induced irradiation effects. During pulsed laser synchronously enhanced servo-turning (s-LAST), the material removal process as well as the selection range of operating temperatures were first determined by means of finite elements. The cutting forces on hard and brittle glass-ceramic materials during laser-assisted manufacturing (LAM) were predicted by developing an analytical force model that takes into account the thermal manufacturing damage caused by laser irradiation, using the discretisation method as well as the shear and ploughing effects associated with laser heating. The s-LAST experiments were performed on a selected ultra-low expansion glass-ceramic (Zerodur), and both the modelling and experimental results were validated, with laser irradiation leading to a 12 % reduction in cutting force, and an average principal cutting force of 3.124 N was recorded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]