Sustainable manufacturing: re-contouring of laser cladding restored parts by machining method with cutting energy management

Laser cladding has been commonly utilized for restoring high value-added parts. However, the poor surface quality becomes key technological barrier which restricts its widespread applications. In the paper, re-contouring strategies by machining method are explored for minimal energy consumption as well as required surface roughness. Firstly, the effect of structural characteristics of the laser-cladded workpiece on specific cutting energy was explored by means of layer-by-layer turning and orthogonal cutting. Results indicated that the specific cutting energy increased, and the machining chatter/vibration exacerbated with decreasing coating thickness under fixed cutting parameters. The reason can be summarized as a result of the effect of elastoplastic deformation behavior across the interface. Then, the influences of depth of cut and feed on specific cutting energy in finish turning were addressed. Results indicated that the specific cutting energy reduced with increasing depth of cut and feed in the form of power functions. In addition, energy efficiency decreased with an increase in uncut chip thickness and cutting speed. On basis of this work, large feed and low cutting speed with the adoption of wiper inserts were recommended for minimizing energy consumption within surface roughness requirement.