Comparative study of ultrasonic and laser assisted machining for sustainable leather cutting in greener industry...

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 CO₂ 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. CO₂ 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.