3.1 Laser structuring effect
Laser structuring removes material and develops cracks on the surface of the substrate. The portion of material removed by laser structuring in ablation gets increased with an increase in laser power. The laser heats the material lattice and raises the temperature, leading to the expulsion of material by melting and vaporization. The temperature generated by nanosecond pulses is in the range of melting and sublimate the structured material. The transformation of melted material is rapid, so the material transforms in the gaseous state, and the melted material is removed by pressurized air. Varying laser power will influence the dimension and geometry of the structured surface. Power will increase the depth of removal of melted material and affect the ablation mechanism and the structure's surface dimension.
Figure 3 demonstrate the geometry and dimension of the laser structure. The pressurized air helps to remove the melted material from the structured surface, so the geometry created varies with the increase in laser power energy. The absorbed energy is increasing with an increase in power. The transferred energy develops cracks on the surface, damaging the material surface and loosening the metal bonds by local excitation of atoms by laser structuring. Increasing the laser structure dimension and energy density will increase the thermal damage and increases the cracks in depth. The laser structured surface has increased density of cracks with an increase in absorbed energy. The increasing density of laser structures increases the thermal damage on the workpiece surface and inferior surface quality, which increases the roughness. The areal laser input energy density is expressed as Eq. 1[16]

where EL is the total laser energy, and AL is the total structured area,
is laser length scan and
is the width of laser scan. The total material removed in LAMG includes the material removed in laser structuring and CMG. The portion removed in laser structuring is comparatively lesser than CMG. Thus, laser structuring will reduce the cutting forces and specific grinding energy in the hybrid process.
3.2 Effect of tool feed and cutting speed on CMG performance
Initially the experiments were performed to analyze the effect of cutting speed and tool feed on CMG performance. The effect of tool feed can be seen in figure 4 on the normal force and tangential force in the micro end grinding process. Experiments were performed at 80mm/min cutting speed, and 5µm depth of cut and grinding tool feed varied between 1-5mm/min. The normal cutting force Fz was observed between 0.22N to 0.85N. The normal cutting forces increased with an increase in the tool feed due to an increase in undeformed chip thickness. Undeformed chip thickness ( ) during micro-slot grinding can be expressed as Eq. 2.[17]

Increasing tool feed increases the roughness due to increased material per grain of removal, which increases surface roughness, as shown in figure 4(c). Another observation with the increase in tool feed is that the tool vibration increases. Due to higher tool rotation and high grinding feed increases tool radial vibration, which decreases the microchannel quality and dimensional accuracy. The channel profile is uneven at high tool feed which increases the roughness of the channel surface. Another reason for higher roughness could be the rubbing of the cantilevered nature of MPGT. In CMG, due to higher vibration, the tool becomes unstable during rotation. Unstable tool rotation is cause of rubbing instead of machining, which deteriorates the quality of the channel.
The effect of cutting speed is analyzed at f=1mm/min, ap=20µm with a varied cutting speed of 35-125mm/min. Tool rotation varied from 22-80kRPM to vary the cutting speed. The grinding tool wear is neglected for analyzing the responses as the experiments were conducted with the same tool.
The normal force and tangential decreased with grinding speed, as shown in figure 5(a). As the cutting speed increases, undeformed chip thickness decreases. Decreasing the amount of material removed per rotation decreases the cutting forces. Also, increasing the more no. of active grains in the machining zone reduces the maximum undeformed chip thickness based on Eq. (2). Metal removal per grain and undeformed chip thickness were reduced at high cutting speed. So, forces also get decreased with lesser undeformed chip thickness. In the material removal mechanism with high cutting speed, more grains are involved per unit length of machining. Therefore, the active distance between two adjacent grain (L) decreased at higher tool rotation.
Cutting speed also decreases the roughness of the microchannel, as shown in figure 5(c) for both roughness parameters. Undeformed chip thickness hm get decreased with cutting speed. So, the material removed per grain of rotation is reduced with a higher cutting speed. The radial motion error decreased with the increase of tool speed of the aerostatic spindle [22]. Higher spindle speed was conducive to reduce surface roughness and restrain the generation of edge chipping. High cutting velocity was preferred in practical micro-grinding.
3.3 Effect of laser structuring on cutting forces in micro grinding
The cutting forces are compared in CMG with pattern 1 to understand the laser structuring effect with varied power. The impact of laser structuring is analyzed at f=2mm/min, ap=5µm at a cutting speed of 80mm/min. The laser power varied for structuring, and the effect of laser power on grinding forces were analyzed. The comparison is shown in figure 6 (a) and (b) for the normal and tangential force with varying laser power and CMG. As it can be seen, the grinding force on the laser structured surface is comparatively lower than CMG. In LAMG, the lateral cracks developed as shown by Azarhoushang et al. and lesser axial cracks, which reduces the cutting force [13]. Due to partial removal of material in the laser structuring surface, the material removal per grain decreases LAMG forces and specific energy consumption.
The effect of varying power shows that as the energy in laser structuring increases, the thermal damage increases, so the material melting is more and gets removed by air pressure. The normal force decreased with an increase in laser power. A similar trend can be seen with tangential force. A maximum reduction of 31% in normal force and 44% in tangential force were observed at 25W compared to CMG. Similarly, tangential force is also lesser compared to CMG. The material removal per grain is reduced due to partial material removal, which lower down the grinding forces.
3.4 Effect of laser structuring on surface roughness
The surface roughness was measured to find the impact of laser structuring on the surface quality of micro-ground channel. The comparison was demonstrated in terms of Sa and Sq with varying laser power and CMG channel bottom surface roughness. As can be seen from the LAMG method, the roughness is significantly reduced compared to CMG at lower power, as shown in figure 6(c). Surface roughness increases with an increase in laser power.
According to the result in CMG, the axial cracks developed, which cause higher roughness, as mentioned by Azarhoushang et al. [13]. Another reason could be a higher cutting force, as evident by the force graph. In CMG, the vibration caused by cutting force is the reason for higher roughness, which is evident in the SEM image by marks surrounding the channel, as shown in figure 9. Higher removal increases uncut chip thickness compared to LAMG, which is the cause of higher roughness.
In LAMG, the lateral cracks developed as demonstrated by Azarhoushang et al. and lesser axial cracks, reducing the cutting force [13]. The lower cutting force also reduces tool vibration, which is evident by narrower channel width. So, lower roughness could be achieved. However, melting and removal of material are higher by increasing laser power, directly affecting the roughness. At 30 W laser power, the depth of thermal damage and melted material is higher than the depth of the channel, so the roughness increases drastically. The phenomena is evident in SEM image in which the thermally damaged surface is not completely removed by tool grinding.
3.5 Effect of laser input energy density
Two laser scan patterns are compared at 15 W of laser power to analyze the effect of laser input energy density on cutting forces and roughness, As shown in figure 2. In pattern 1, the transferred energy density is lesser compared to pattern 2 because of the longer laser scan length for the same channel length.
A comparison of forces achieved in the tangential and normal directions is shown in figure 7 (a-b). Increasing laser input energy per unit area rises melting, and the cracks density increases in depth. So, the removal of material becomes easier. Increased energy density improves the portion of material removed by structuring, and thermal damage got increased. The normal and tangential cutting force both achieved lesser in pattern 2. Tangential force decreased by 10.3% in pattern 1 and 36% in pattern 2 compared to CMG. Similarly, normal force decreased by 20.5% in pattern 1 and 38% less for pattern 2.
The surface roughness of the channel is also compared for pattern 1 and 2 to analyze the effect of laser energy density, as shown in figure 7(c). It can be seen in pattern 1 the laser energy density is lesser, so the roughness achieved is lower. However, with pattern 2, the roughness is increased again due to the effect of laser heating. The higher energy density damage material surface more and increases roughness. In pattern 1, Sa and Sq decreased by 24% and 22%, respectively, compared to CMG. Roughness increases in pattern 2 by 11% and 14.6% for Sa and Sq, respectively, compared to CMG. So the optimum laser energy density is needed for a better finish and lesser cutting force. Higher laser energy density increases the roughness. It can be concluded the laser structuring pattern should be optimized to control energy density for lower cutting forces and higher surface finish.
3.6 Surface morphology analysis
Microchannel surface morphology was analyzed to understand the machining mechanism during material removal in LAMG and CMG. Zeiss EVO18 captures SEM micrograph for microchannel quality and surface morphology are shown in figures 8-10. LAMG ground surface scanned with laser pattern 1 and 2 is shown in figure 9 and 10, respectively. The laser parameter is kept constant during both patterns, i.e.,15W and vl=60m/s. The microchannel surface is compared at CMG parameter vs=80mm/min, f=2 mm/min and ap=5µm.
The SEM micrograph can be seen in CMG as the wider channel achieved compared to LAMG. The broader interaction of the tool is due to the radial vibration of the MPGT tool. Tool vibration is more prone in the machining zone of hard material and due to the extended length of MPGT. The tool rubbing marks are visible on both sides of the channel due to the cantilever nature MPGT tool. The unevenness of the surface is higher due to vibrations, which increases the surface roughness of the channel. Both sides of channel tool motion marks are evident, which confirms the tool vibration. Dimensional accuracy is observed lower in CMG due to tool vibrations.
In the LAMG, the channel width is comparatively lower than micro grinding due to lesser vibration. The force developed in the LAMG process is lesser, so a stable micro-grinding process can be seen without tool vibration. Initial marks of tool entry can be seen due to sudden material interaction, leading to vibration and radial errors in the spindle, as shown in Figures 9 and 10. After that tool become stable, so better channel quality is achieved.
The material affected by laser structuring is deposited on the side walls in the tool rotation direction. The marks of varying depth visible in layers show the increasing depth in subsequent passes of laser structured grinding surface in the SEM image in figure 9. The material can be seen thermally affected according to the laser scan path at the channel track centre. The thermally affected material is removed with tool motion; however, it is not removed in small chips because it becomes amorphous and porous. The removed material was deposited on sidewalls after the thermal effect. The surface morphology seen improved compared to CMG; however, the thermally affected surface of the laser beam can be seen clearly. The material affected by laser heat smeared on the sidewalls of the channel.
In the LAMG, the surface is affected by laser heating, so a heat-affected surface is visible on the surface of the microchannel, which shows the path of the laser track. The tool motion does not completely remove the heat-affected zone. Instead, it shows the depth of the heat-affected zone is greater than the channel depth as shown in fig 9.
Figure 10 shows the SEM image of the channel fabricated by pattern 2 of laser scanning and CMG. In pattern 2, the laser energy transferred per unit area is higher than pattern 1 due to the denser laser path. Similar to pattern 1, the channel's width is lesser than the CMG channel due to the tool's lesser radial vibration, which was concluded by SEM micrograph. However, roughness increases with laser energy density due to excessive thermal damage in depth compared to pattern 1. Thermal damage deteriorates surface and more significant HAZ due to longer interaction time. The affected material does not remove entirely by tool machining. On the surface, the removed material ablation marks can be seen at the corner of the scan track as there is a longer interaction due to the interpolation of axis motion between laser beam and material. The heat affected material grains were pulled out by the grinding tool. The portion of material removed is more by a laser beam, so lesser material needs to be removed per grain of tool motion, reducing the uncut chip thickness. So lesser force was achieved compared to pattern 1 and CMG. The optimization of laser power and energy density is required for a specific depth of the channel fabrication for the thermal structuring of the workpiece surface.