Entire Hardening of Small Thin Plate with a Small Power Semiconductor Laser Considering Plate Deformation

Abstract

Nowadays, resource saving technologies have become important because of increasing global environmental problems. Moreover, demand is increasing for the manufacturing and machining of small mechanical parts because of the downsizing of electronic mobile devices. Thus, one requirement has emerged that these small parts have to be fabricated by smaller machine tools to reduce the environmental burden. Here, when we look at the heat treatment process, it is found that most small parts are generally treated with a large size furnace as well. Therefore, we focus on compact machine tools to develop the clean and energy-saving technology in the manufacturing fields. In the present report, we consider an in-situ laser heat treatment technology integrated on the table used for compact machine tools. In particular, we perform the entire laser hardening of a small thin plate with a small power semiconductor laser, which is an attempt to harden a whole steel sheet. However, thin plates deform during the laser hardening process, which is called “laser forming.” Thus, we discuss an effective irradiation path to prevent the deformation of plates while quenching the entire plate. Moreover, considering the power consumption in the laser quenching process, we investigate an appropriate laser irradiation condition.