Advantages of laser heat treating ?

I can understand localized hardening (without coils), but are there other advantages? Is this for case hardening only? Is this for general use, or really special cases? I would like to hear from end users rather than contact heat treaters or the manufacturer.

RJT,

Laser can case harden some geometries easily where induction struggles or just can’t do it. Laser is case hardening only on medium or high carbon steels and some cast iron. Laser hardening makes sense economically when you have high volume parts like automotive or low volume high value parts like aerospace. Laser hardware costs about the same to purchase setup and operate as induction but there are two dozen people out there who understand induction for every laser hardening guru. So with this in mind, if it can be done with induction, that’s what industry does.

I would be surprised if you hear from an end user who is doing laser hardening. There are quite a few out there but details are generally proprietary.

Ike

Ike,
Makes sense, that's about what I thought. I meant an end user who may use a heat treating service to laser harden their parts, not necessarily someone who does it in house for their product, but either one would be interesting to hear from. Doesn't look like it is too common, not many places advertise the capability. How long has it been around?

RJT,

Two contract shops come to mind in North America that has the equipment and know how, Preco in Wisconsin and Alabama Laser. I have no affiliation with either.

In the mid 1970’s the Saginaw steering box got a laser hardened wear stripe in its bore and the cylinder liners on the 2-stroke diesel locomotive engines got their bores fully laser hardened. Both are still in full production AFAIK. By the 1980’s there were too many production laser hardening installations to count on my fingers and toes.

Ike