Basic directions of effective use of laser equipment for heat treatment of alloys

Abstract

For the thirty six years that have passed since the creation of the first laser, laser engineering has progressed enormously. For example, for the last twenty years the world volume of sales of all kinds of lasers for civil purposes has increased more than tenfold in monetary terms, growing by 15% every year. In 1995, over 90 million lasers were sold for over 1.2 billion dollars. Today we know over 100 fields of laser application. The primary use of lasers is for treating materials; the volume of such sales has grown by an order of magnitude for the last twenty years and amounts to 350 million dollars a year (about 25% of the cost of all lasers), which is equal to 20 thousand units a year. The author of the present paper analyzes and gives examples of the use of lasers for heat treatment of tools and various machine parts.