"Laser heat treatment with latest system components"

Laser beam heat treatment has been established during the last years as a complementary technology for local hardening treatment tasks at tool manufacturing, automotive industry and many others. Especially new high power diode lasers and a lot of process supporting systems, what have been developed in recent years, are responsible for the increase of industrial laser hardening applications. The paper starts with information about the basics of laser heat treatment. After that a review about suitable lasers and recommended systems for reliable and well adapted laser heat treatment processes is given. Examples of last ten years transfer of laser beam hardening into industry are presented and discussed.