Investigation on laser square hole drilling of AA7475/SiC/ZrSiO 4 composites

Compared with other machining processes, laser machining is seen as one of the time and cost effective processes in machining of metal matrix composites (MMCs). Hence, this work more focuses on analysis of laser machining parameters, namely, laser trepanning speed, laser power and standoff distance, various weight percentages of SiC and ZrSiO4 are selected for investigation. Laser machining experiments were performed on SiC and ZrSiO4 reinforced with Aluminium Alloy (AA7475). The performance measures, hole size at entry, surface roughness and taper angle of MMCs were evaluated. Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE II) was used for finding optimum process parameters. PROMETHEE II based Adaptive Network Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was used for modelling the responses. The main contribution of this work is the analysis of the impact of reinforcement particles of the composites and laser machining parameters on the responses. The results showed that hole size at entry, surface roughness and taper angle of unreinforced alloy was less than the composite for all the processing conditions. PROMETHEE II algorithm produced a consistent result. PROMETHEE II based ANFIS model produces closer predicted value to experimental value. Scanning electron microscope is used to identify the machined defects such as recast layer, spatter and dross.