A Study of Laser Process Parameter on Laser Transfomation Hardening on Mild Steel AISI 1015

Laser hardening treatment has emerged as an advance technique for improving wear resistance and surface hardening of material without affecting the core material properties. An experimental attempt was made to study the role of laser process parameters i.e., power, scanning speed, repetition rate, pulse width, peak power etc. in attaining the surface hardness of the material. Experimental study inferred that laser input power and interaction time had direct impact on the achievable hardness values. Parameters were optimized using microstructure studies and hardness measurements. The laser process parameters have important role as any deviation from optimized parameters may lead to either melting of the metal or retain the material unaffected. In both the condition achievable hardness at specific depth could not be achieved. This paper highlights the effect of each parameter on the depth of hardened layer. Correlation with microstructure and hardness values used for optimizing parameters has been presented.