BASIC DIRECTIONS OF EFFECTIVE USE OF LASER EQUIPMENT FOR HEAT-TREATMENT OF ALLOYS

For the thirty six years that have passed since the creation of the fi rst laser, laser engineering has progressed enormously. For example, f or the last twenty years the world volume of sales of all kinds of las ers for civil purposes has increased more than tenfold in monetary ter ms, growing by 15% every year. In 1995, over 90 million lasers were so ld for over 1.2 billion dollars. Today we know over 100 fields of lase r application. The primary use of lasers is for treating materials; th e volume of such sales has grown by an order of magnitude for the last twenty years and amounts to 350 million dollars a year (about 25% of the cost of all lasers), which is equal to 20 thousand units a year. T he author of the present paper analyzes and gives examples of the use of lasers for heat treatment of tools and various machine parts.