Aerospace Technic and Technology

Subject and purpose. Currently, gas, solid-state, and fiber lasers are used to process materials in the aviation industry. For the thermal treatment of steels, gas CO2 lasers with a capacity of more than 1 kW used, which are reliable in operation but have high cost and low efficiency. There are no results on the use of low-power (up to 20 W) pulsed-mode lasers for surface hardening of steel products. The purpose of this work is to determine the modes of surface hardening of products from carbon and alloy steels using low-power solid-state pulsed YAG lasers. Methodology. For laser hardening, a 5 W solid-state YAG laser was used (diode pumping, radiation wavelength λ = 1,064 μm, pulse mode). The use of a nonlinear crystal made it possible to obtain UV radiation with λ = 0,355 μm (third harmonic). The following modes were investigated: processing with single pulses (duration 0,1...0,4 ms) and multi-pulse processing with short (30...70 ms) pulses. The scanning speed was 8...2 mm/s. The energy in the pulse was determined by the photoelectric method. Thermal hardening was performed on the following steels: У12, P6M5. The possibility of UV radiation hardening was evaluated on steel 20, 45, У12, and ШХ15. Findings. The optimum values of pulse duration for maximum hardness in laser hardening of the investigated steels. With multi-pulse treatment of steels, the pulse duration is shorter than with single-pulse treatment, the hardening intensity is higher, and the quality of the processed surface is better. Single-pulse and multi-pulse processing are accompanied by partial melting of the surface of steel products, which does not allow it to be used in cases where a high quality of the surface is required. Laser hardening of steel by ultraviolet radiation is not accompanied by melting. Conclusion. For surface hardening of products, where partial melting of the surface is possible, low-power lasers in pulse mode can be used. Laser hardening by ultraviolet radiation is a promising direction for thermal hardening of steels, which allows maintaining the original quality of the surface layer. Thermal hardening with low-power lasers can be effective for small-sized areas of the processed parts of the fuel equipment of aircraft engines, friction elements, and, especially, the tool is small.

low-power solid-state laser; single-pulse and multi-pulse processing; pulse duration; surface hardening; steel

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