Abstract:
Monel® alloy 400 has excellent corrosion resistance and finds applications in marine industries. The
processing of marine components requires high processing efficiency and a quality finish. Hence, this
research aims to investigate the effects of the laser processing parameters such as laser fluence,
scanning velocity, hatching distance, and the scanning pass on the ablation rates and efficiency,
chemistry, and nanomechanical properties of the Monel® alloy 400 after pulsed picosecond (ps) laser
ablation. From the experimental findings, the ablation depth increases as the laser fluence increases
while decreasing as the scanning velocity increases. Surface roughness was noted to increase as the
laser fluence increased. The findings demonstrated that the ablation rate increases as laser fluence
increases while ablation efficiency decreases. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX)showed that
the elemental composition of laser-ablated zones is almost similar to that of the polished sample.
X-ray spectroscopy (XPS)shows that the outer layer on the surface of Monel® alloy 400 is composed of
NiO and CuO. The hardness and Young’s modulus of the laser-processed alloy were found to be less
than those of the bulk material. This study can be used to establish optimal processing parameters for
the ultrafast ps laser processing of materials to achieve high ablation efficiency with a high-quality
surface finish for industrial applications.
