Influence of laser power in nanosecond laser texturing for a hydrophobic state on SS316L

Abstract

he use of lasers in surface engineering has recently made significantprogress. The hydrophobic surface iscommonlystudied becauseof the applicationin variousfields, including vehicles, aerospace, biomedicine,etc. Since these laser methods require many combinationparameters, such as laser power (P), frequency (ƒ), scan speed(ʋ) and laser beam diameter (D), the effect of the parametersmust therefore be investigated to produce the hydrophobic condition. This research tries to relatethe laser power with the morphological properties and contact angle of the SS316L surfaces. Samples are subjected to laser texturing with different laser power settings. The surface is then characterised by surface roughness, and the contact angle is measured according to a specific time interval. The laser power output and energy density functionon the surface and contact angle were investigated in these contexts experimentally. Surface roughness was defined and validated to show that the laser parameters' effectis effectiveand controllable. This study shows that the laser output intensity significantly contributes to regulatingsurface roughness and the substrate's wetting activity. The 18W and 24W laser outputs produce a spikedsurface with variouspeaks that cause the surface to become hydrophobic over time because of the air-trap that happens in the valley.

Keywords

• nanosecond laser texturing
• surface roughness
• ss316l
• contact angle