Effect of initial surface topography during laser polishing process: Statistical analysis

Abstract

Surface finish is one of the most important quality characteristics of fabricated components. Laser polishing (LP) is one of the advanced manufacturing surface finishing techniques that has been recently developed and successfully employed for improving surface quality without deteriorating the overall structural form through surface smoothing by melting and redistributing a thin layer of molten material. This paper advances the statistical analysis of the LP process emphasizing aspects of the effect of the initial surface topography. Flat and ground initial surfaces are used for comparative statistical analysis of initial and polished profiles obtained experimentally. Their profile geometries and surface quality characteristics, such as, roughness, were compared and analyzed. In addition, LP process was experimentally investigated as a thermodynamic operator represented by a transfer function and it was examined by means of a coherence function.