Investigation of the machinability of the Ti6Al4V titanium alloy's by fiber laser machining processes

Titanium and titanium alloys are an indispensable material for the industry and especially for the space, marine and aerospace industries due to their high physical and chemical properties combined with features such as low density, high strength, high corrosion and heat resistance. In this thesis study, Laser Beam Machining technique has been used as an uncommon method out of the main processing methods for the Ti6Al4V titanium alloy. Since mechanical cutting forces do not occur during laser cutting, a fast and vibration-free operation can be performed. In the case of metal cutting with laser technology, many more successful results than traditional methods are obtained. Just as in traditional methods, there are also a number of process parameters in laser cutting technology that increase production efficiency and directly affect product quality. In this study, laser systems used in industrial material cutting processes and cutting parameters and their effects on product quality are examined. As a result of the experiments, surface and heat-affected regions of the samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction method (XRD) and microhardness measurements have been made. Characteristic features such as surface formations of processed surfaces, microstructure changes, resolidified layer thickness, kerf widths, kerf inclination angles were investigated and how these characteristics were changed according to process parameters were investigated. Keywords: Fiber laser, Laser cutting, Ti6Al4V