Enhancement of the wear resistance and microhardness of aluminum alloy by Nd:YaG laser treatment.

Haitham T. Hussein,Abdul Amir H. Kadhum,Abdulhadi Kadhim,Abu Bakar Mohamad,Ahmed A. Al-Amiery

doi:10.1155/2014/842062

Haitham T. Hussein, Abdul Amir H. Kadhum + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/842062

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Abstract

Influence of laser treatment on mechanical properties, wear resistance, and Vickers hardness of aluminum alloy was studied. The specimens were treated by using Nd:YaG laser of energy 780 mj, wavelength 512 nm, and duration time 8 ns. The wear behavior of the specimens was studied for all specimens before and after treatment by Nd:YaG laser and the dry wear experiments were carried out by sing pinon-disc technique. The specimens were machined as a disk with diameter of 25 mm and circular groove in depth of 3 mm. All specimens were conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray florescence analysis (EDS), optical microscopy, and Vickers hardness. The results showed that the dry wear rate was decreased after laser hardening and increased Vickers hardness values by ratio of 2.4 : 1. The results showed that the values of wear rate for samples having circular grooves are less than samples without grooves after laser treatment.

Highlights

The solid surface hardening by laser treatment represents the structural transformations of the material; this can be established by irradiating the surface with a laser pulse
Laser hardening is a method in which the highpower laser beam quickly irradiates the specimen surface to increase rapidly the specimen surface temperature that is higher than the phase-transformation point and lower than the melting point
In continuation of previous studies [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] on corrosion, we have focused on the potential of laser transformation hardening and laser treatment on two types of samples with and without grooves in samples’ surface of aluminum alloy

Summary

Introduction

The solid surface hardening by laser treatment represents the structural transformations of the material; this can be established by irradiating the surface with a laser pulse. Laser hardening is a method in which the highpower laser beam quickly irradiates the specimen surface to increase rapidly the specimen surface temperature that is higher than the phase-transformation point and lower than the melting point. After the laser beam is switched off, the cooling base quickly cools the heated region to quench by itself so that the specimen surface is hardened and its performance is modified and improved. Small laser spot size-high processing speed combination is effective at low laser power range. In continuation of previous studies [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] on corrosion, we have focused on the potential of laser transformation hardening and laser treatment on two types of samples with and without grooves in samples’ surface of aluminum alloy

Experimental

Wear and Vickers Hardness Experiments

Results and Discussion

Conclusions