ISSN: 1304-7191 | E-ISSN: 1304-7205
Optimization of fibre laser parameters for micro-texturing in piston ring manufacturing
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, K.K.Wagh Institute of Engineering
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrutvahini College of Engineering, Savitribai Phule Pune University, 411007, India
3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bhivarabai Sawant College of Engineering and Research, Savitribai Phule Pune University, 411007, India
Sigma J Eng Nat Sci 2026; 44(2): 794-819 DOI: 10.14744/sigma.2026.2013
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Abstract

Surface texturing with laser is a common method to enhance tribology of interacting surfaces, and, nevertheless, there are serious difficulties with controlling a perfect size of texture. This paper examines how fiber laser process parameters influence the depth of the texture, roughness, and diameter and how Taguchi methodology can be used to optimize this process. The test materials were commercial cast iron piston rings which had a surface roughness of 0.482 um, hardness of 410 HV, and a Youngs modulus of 250 Gpa. Surface texturing was performed on a Marko Laser fiber laser machine with power of 20 W, wavelength of 1062 nm, frequency of 200 KHz and a speed of 140 mm/s. We have used Taguchi method in conjunction with multi-objective optimization with the aid of the gray relational grade (GRG) rank method where an L9 orthogonal array was used to assess the influence of laser power, frequency, and scanning speed on the texture dimensions. A confocal microscope was used to determine surface topography. Findings have shown that laser power has the strongest effect on dimple attributes with 58.14 percent variance in diameter because of it, after which laser frequency (31.49 percent) and scan speed (0.35 percent) follow. The best set of parameters used gave an ideal dimple size and this was; scan speed of 140 mm/s, 25 KHz frequency, and laser power of 16 W. The originality of the study at hand is that, it uses a combination of Taguchi analysis and gray relational grade (GRG) rank to optimize the laser parameters including power, frequency, scan speed with dimple characteristics of cast iron piston rings. This method does not only enable one to have a clear picture on the influence of these parameters on the dimple sizes and the surface roughness but also helps to create more efficient and durable piston rings by using efficient laser texturing.