Lower operational cost
Laser hardening is a specialized heat-treating process used exclusively on ferrous materials including steels and cast iron with a carbon content of more than 0.2%. The laser beam heats up the outer layer to just below the melting temperature. As the laser beam starts to move in the processing direction, it continuously warms the surface. When the laser beam moves away, the hot surface layer is self-quenched, or cooled rapidly by the surrounding material. With rapid cooling, a new, hard metal structure, martensite, forms. This results in dramatically enhanced metallurgical properties.
