Mekid Samir, Swaminathan Vasanth, Chekalil Ismail
Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Interdisciplinary Research Center for Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 2;15(1):22791. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-05181-z.
Sustainable production strategies are becoming more essential in the leather industry to minimize environmental impact and enhance process efficiency. The proposed study investigates the comparative analysis of ultrasonic assisted machining and CO laser assisted machining for leather cutting focusing on sustainable leather processing. In recent times the ultrasonic cutting has emerged as a promising alternative for precision leather cutting. This technique makes use of high frequency vibrations to cut through leather materials with minimum resistance that improves edge quality and significantly reduces the material waste. The cutting trials were carried out on buffalo leather with a thickness of 1.4 mm. The surface roughness and kerf width were analyzed as a key process parameter for this investigation to produce optimal input parameters. The proposed study also explores image processing techniques to quantify surface roughness. Experimental results in leather cutting demonstrate that ultrasonic cutting was performed by varying delay time of (0.1-0.4 s), cutting time (0.02-0.12 s) and shaking time (0.02-0.08 s) significantly reduces thermal damage and maintaining average surface roughness of 0.008 μm and narrow kerfwidth of 0.2899 mm. CO laser cutting was carried out by varying power (20-30 W), cutting speed (10-30 m/min) and Standoff Distance (1.5-1.9 mm) produces significant thermal damage evident by carbonization at cut edges with an average surface roughness of 0.012 μm and kerf width of 0.1391 mm. The ultrasonic cutting consumes less energy compared to laser machining resulting in lower overall emissions and significantly reduced carbon footprint. As sustainability becomes an essential concern in the global industrial sector this study highlights the benefit and drawbacks of each technique emphasizing the adaptability of ultrasonic machining for greener industrial practices. These findings contribute to the sustainable manufacturing by demonstrating the potential of ultrasonic cutting for cleaner more efficient leather processing with reduced environmental impact.
在皮革行业中，可持续生产策略变得愈发重要，以尽量减少对环境的影响并提高加工效率。本研究对超声波辅助加工和CO激光辅助加工用于皮革切割进行了对比分析，重点关注可持续皮革加工。近年来，超声波切割已成为精密皮革切割的一种有前景的替代方法。该技术利用高频振动以最小的阻力切割皮革材料，从而提高边缘质量并显著减少材料浪费。切割试验在厚度为1.4毫米的水牛皮革上进行。表面粗糙度和切口宽度作为本研究的关键工艺参数进行分析，以得出最佳输入参数。本研究还探索了图像处理技术来量化表面粗糙度。皮革切割的实验结果表明，通过改变延迟时间（0.1 - 0.4秒）、切割时间（0.02 - 0.12秒）和振动时间（0.02 - 0.08秒）进行超声波切割，可显著减少热损伤，并保持平均表面粗糙度为0.008微米和切口宽度为0.2899毫米。通过改变功率（20 - 30瓦）、切割速度（10 - 30米/分钟）和离焦距离（1.5 - 1.9毫米）进行CO激光切割，会产生明显的热损伤，切割边缘碳化明显，平均表面粗糙度为0.012微米，切口宽度为0.1391毫米。与激光加工相比，超声波切割消耗的能量更少，从而降低了总体排放并显著减少了碳足迹。随着可持续性成为全球工业部门的一个重要关注点，本研究突出了每种技术的优缺点，强调了超声波加工在更环保工业实践中的适应性。这些发现通过展示超声波切割在更清洁、更高效的皮革加工以及减少环境影响方面的潜力，为可持续制造做出了贡献。
