Experimental investigation on the superhydrophobic property of laser micromachined stainless steel 316L surface

Abstract

Compared to conventional machined surfaces, superhydrophobic surfaces have advantages such as anti-corrosion, anti-bacterial, anti-biofouling, and self-cleaning qualities. In the production of biomedical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, food processing, and marine parts that demand superhydrophobic surfaces, stainless steel 316L (SS 316L) finds use. One of the industrial procedures used to create micro-textures on the surface of a material to promote hydrophobicity is laser beam machining. The objective of this study is to use an Nd: YAG laser to create superhydrophobic surfaces through a planned set of experiments. In this work, it was analysed how the laser beam machining process parameters affected the contact angle, which is a crucial factor in determining whether a surface is hydrophobic. To find the ideal set of laser machining parameters to achieve superhydrophobicity in the shortest period, the Taguchi and ANFIS methods were used to optimise the Laser Beam Machining process parameters.