Silicon alumina nitride (SiAlON) and alumina toughened zirconia (ATZ) ceramics are applied for ceramic cutting tools to machine, e.g., cast iron, nickel base alloys and other difficult-to-machine materials. The state of the art technology for manufacturing of the cutting tool geometry is grinding. Laser processing of ceramics is already studied in terms of ablation rate and roughness evaluation with the application of dental implant manufacturing. In the present study, laser machining of the mentioned ceramics is explored with a laser beam source of 1064 nm wavelength and 10 ps pulse duration (FWHM). The angle dependent energy specific removal rate is described in a model and the optimal pulse fluence for the different materials and the irradiation angles can be derived. For processing at irradiation angle of up to 75° no decrease of the relative absorption could be observed. For ATZ, lowest surface roughness is determined for both, orthogonal and quasi-tangential processing angle. For SiAlON, the roughness decreases constantly for higher tilt angles. A significant difference in the material answer with change of the sample composition can be detected and the results show the potential of further developing SiAlON ceramics towards machineability for laser ablation.
Keywords: ATZ; SiAlON; laser ablation; tilted irradiation angle.