75. Laser Surface Treatment in Manufacturing

Laser manufacturing techniques belong to the most promising and efficient ones, contributing to the technological development in many industry branches and especially those in which material processing dominates. Laser treatment is characteristic of contactless operation, selectivity, and possibility of full process automation. Contactless nature of laser treatment guarantees cleanliness of the treatment location and makes also possible remote control of the laser beam through transparent protection barriers, in vacuum, gas atmosphere, or under water. It is important that one can concentrate a laser radiation beam to a very small dimension, even as small as a portion of a micrometer. This makes it viable to achieve externally big power concentration values and selective acting with the beam on carefully selected material areas, e.g., in locations hard to access, subjected to mechanical loads, etc., with no fear of the effect of the delivered heat on the adjacent areas, neighboring elements and part deformation.

Following an introduction of laser fundamentals in the first part of the chapter, theoretical aspects associated with laser radiation and the structure and operating principle of lasers were discussed in the second part of the present chapter concerning laser treatment of metallic and nonmetallic materials. The third part of the work presents knowledge devoted to the most popular techniques of laser treatment of engineering materials such as hot working; remelting; laser alloying/cladding; laser hardfacing; laser-assisted chemical and physical vapor deposition (LACVD and LAPVD); laser treatment of functional materials (e.g., silicone texturization); laser cleaning, cutting, drilling, and marking; and laser micromachining. The application examples of lasers in materials engineering described in part 4 of the article are supplementing the knowledge relating to the utilization of laser techniques.