Controllable generation of 3D textured abrasive tools via multiple-pass laser ablation

Textured Abrasive Tool (TAT) offers an effective solution to alleviate thermal issues during machining processes, and laser machining has been identified as one of the most promising fabrication approaches. Laser ablation of TATs has unique process complexity thanks to not only the porous structure of abrasive tools but also the bond-abrasive multiple-material nature. Due to this complexity, most previous investigations on laser-based generation of TATs relied on the single-pass ablation strategy, and therefore most reported TATs had still 2D structures with the same ablation depth. Although the creation of depth-controlled 3D structures based on multiple-pass laser ablation strategy has been investigated in the laser machining community, few attempt applied this technique to TAT fabrication, and this paper aims to fill this gap. Special attentions were paid to the effect of both laser pass numbers and scanning speeds on the ablated structure shapes, depths, widths, and morphologies. The experimental results were well supported by the theoretical explanations, based on which the pragmatic laser parameter selection strategy was proposed. With the strategy, we successfully produced one TAT having 2D sinusoidal profiles and one with 3D staggered hemisphere micro-structures. Grinding trials were performed as well to prove the superior performances of the produced tool. This work might provide important reference for designing and manufacturing the next-generation advanced abrasive tools embedded with complex and functional 3D machining elements.