Laser machining has a high potential for the preparation of cutting edges. However, the heat input through the laser beam may change the properties of the cutting tool material. These changes can in turn affect the performance of the tool. In this paper, the surface roughness, the chemical composition, the phase composition, the surface residual stresses and the hardness in the surface layer of differently laser machined specimens made of cemented carbide are analyzed. In the second step of the investigations, laser machining was used for the preparation of cutting edges. The laser parameter settings applied for the preparation were varied. The analysis reveals that the surface, the surface integrity and the tool performance are significantly affected by the parameter sets used for laser machining. The decisive factor is the efficiency of material removal. The less heat dissipates from the processing area into the adjacent material, the more efficient the material removal, and the lower the surface roughness and the undesired alteration of the sub-surface properties. Laser parameter sets that only slightly influenced the properties of the cemented carbide resulted in a better tool performance in comparison to those that altered the properties of the cemented carbide more strongly. The most important laser parameter in our study was the pulse duration. Pulse durations in the range of picoseconds considerably reduced tool wear compared to pulse durations in the order of nanoseconds. This is mainly due to the smaller tensile residual stresses in the surface and the better mechanical material properties in the surface layer in the case of the shorter pulse durations.

激光加工具有制备切削刃的巨大潜力。但是，通过激光束输入的热量可能会改变切削工具材料的性能。这些更改反过来会影响工具的性能。本文分析了硬质合金制成的不同激光加工试样的表面粗糙度，化学成分，相组成，表面残余应力和表层硬度。在研究的第二步中，使用激光加工来准备切削刃。应用于准备工作的激光参数设置有所不同。分析表明，表面，表面完整性和刀具性能受到激光加工所用参数集的显着影响。决定性因素是材料去除的效率。从加工区域散发到相邻材料中的热量越少，材料去除的效率就越高，并且表面粗糙度越低，并且次表面性能的不良变化也就越小。与那些更强烈地改变硬质合金性能的参数相比，仅略微影响硬质合金性能的激光参数组具有更好的刀具性能。在我们的研究中，最重要的激光参数是脉冲持续时间。与纳秒级的脉冲时间相比，皮秒级的脉冲时间可显着降低工具磨损。