Heat Treating With Diode Lasers

Diode lasers offer precise surface heating for local hardening and annealing at lower investment and operating costs than other laser types.  Compared to conventional heat treating, diode laser heat treating can reduce production costs and total process time.  Quenchants are not needed, heat input and distortion are drastically decreased while still maintaining case depth, and post-process machining can be reduced or eliminated with laser hardening.  Diode lasers have been used for a variety of applications including case hardening of gear teeth and stamping dies, annealing of work-hardened materials, and laser-assisted forming of advanced high-strength steels.  This presentation will review the laser heating process, typical laser equipment, and examples of industrial applications.