STRUCTURE AND MICROHARDNESS OF THE SURFACE-LAYERS OF IRON-CARBON ALLOYS AFTER LASER HEAT-TREATMENT

Laser radiation is widely used for heat treatment of surfaces of parts . Its special features consist in localizability of the treatment zone , the possibility of strengthening rather inaccessible regions, and, i n some cases, elimination of the tempering operation For the laser tre atment to be highly efficient we need data on the effect of the regime and type of laser on the properties of surfaces of various steels and alloys, which are rather scarce in the literature. The aim of the pre sent work consists in analyzing and generalizing results obtained in i nvestigations of the structure and structural and phase transformation s in treatment of steels and cast irons by radiation of various lasers .