Effect of laser heat treatments on the hardness of tool steels

Abstract The application of laser heat treatments (LHT) has been growing attention in the last years, due to effectiveness localized hardening that can improve tribological properties steels. AISI P20 mod. steel is commonly used for plastic injection moulds applications and be heat-treated achieve high hardness values. This work presents an experimental investigation on local effect parts, using a high-power diode laser. Different at 1060 °C 1100 feed rate 10 mm·s -1 15 were applied steel. LHT assessed through mapping trough depth width. results showed as-received tool approximately 300 HV, after occurred increment around 625 HV with fair distribution. had minimum 0.8mm maximum 1.0mm depth.