The influence of surface finishing on laser heat treatments of a tool steel

• Autor(a) principal: Lagarinhos, J. N.
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Santos, Simão, Miranda, Georgina, Afonso, Daniel, Torcato, Ricardo, Santos, Carlos, Oliveira, Martinho
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/36174
• topic: Laser; Local heat treatments; Surface finishing

Laser heat treatments (LHT) has received growing attention in the last years because of highly localized precision and manufacturing efficiency related to laser processing of moulds steel. Due of its strong resistance and ability to maintain hardness and strength at high temperatures, AISI P20 steel is one of the most widely used tool steel in the plastics injection mould industry. This work presents an experimental investigation on LHT using P20 mod. steel produced with different surface finishes. After mechanical surface finishing, the diode laser beam with 15 mm width was applied to the P20 specimens at 1060 °C using a feed rate of 8.8 mms-1in an air and argon ambient. The influence of different LHT atmosphere conditions and specimen initial surface finishing on characteristics such as final roughness, microhardness and microstructure were comprehensively analyzed. The use of a controlled atmosphere during processing showed an increment in depth and hardness values of samples. Through 3D profilometer, it was possible to determine the samples roughness. Results showed that lower average roughness leads to higher hardness values close to the surface, while higher average roughness lead to a deeper heat-treated zone. Macroscopical analysis revealed the depth and width afftected by LHT. The microhardness results showed an increment from 300 HV to around 750 HV on laser heat-treated zone using a controlled environment. Optical microscopy analysed the microstructural changes into martensite between LHT and non LHT zones for all samples