Abstract:
In this work surface hardening treatment of carbon steel specimens, that
having a carbon contents ranging between 0.25 and 2.44%, was done using CO2
laser having 10.6μm wavelength, 100μm spot size and with powers ranged between
100-300 W.
The dependence of the surface hardness on laser power (laser intensity),
scanning speed (exposure time), specimen carbon content and specimen thickness
were performed. It was shown that the enhancement in target surface hardness
increased with laser power and decreased, with increasing the scanning speed for
fixed power. Also it was found that, the enhancement in target surface hardness was
increased with the increasing in carbon percentage and decreased when the target
was thicker.
High power laser hardening technique proves the possibility of controllable
hardness enhancement via controlling the laser interaction parameters.
