Laser Hardening
• Laser hardening treatment is widely used to harden localized areas of steel and cast iron machine components. This process is sometimes referred to as laser transformation hardening to differentiate it from laser surface melting phenomena.
• There is no chemistry change produced by laser transformation hardening, and the process, like induction and flame hardening, provides an effective technique to harden ferrous materials selectively.
• As laser beams are of high intensity, a lens is used to reduce the intensity by producing a defocused spot of size ranging from 0.5 to 25 mm. proper control of energy input is necessary to avoid melting.
• Laser transformation hardening produces thin surface zones that are heated and cooled very rapidly, resulting in very fine Martensitic microstructures, even in steels with relatively low hardenability. High hardness and good wear resistance with less distortion result from this process.
• Laser hardening has the advantage of precise control over the area to be hardened, an ability to harden reentrant surfaces, very high speed of hardening and no separate quenching step (the quench is effected by the mass of the unheated material).
• The disadvantage is that the hardening is shallower than in induction and flame hardening.
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