CO₂ laser beam cutting and heat treatment for deburring of spheroidal graphite cast iron

Finishing process in foundry industries is difficult to be automated, thus, it is usually done manually with a grinder or hammer. CO₂ laser beam cutting and heat treatment seem useful as finishing processes and are expected to reduce the need of physical labor in the industry. In consideration of applying CO₂ laser beam cutting and heat treatment to deburring of spheroidal graphite cast iron, fundamental experiments have been done in the present paper. Removing characteristics of fins and thickness of genertated heat affected zone are obtained for various operation conditions. Heat affected zone is always generated; the thickness is dependent upon the operation conditions. It can be reduced to 20 μ m under the conditions of 200 W, 25 mm/min and 490 kPa of O₂ assist gas. Furthermore, the heat affected zone is heat treated with CO₂ laser beam. The hardness of MHV 380–420 is obtained under the conditions of 900 Wand 500 mm/min. This heat treated zone can be smoothed more easily than the original zone; these processes are applicable to the deburring of spheroidal graphite cast iron.