“Pinpoint” Laser Heat-Treating Process Now Available
According to the company, LaserHeat dramatically enhances the metallurgical properties of a part within a specific critical wear area by providing surface hardening to the area without altering the chemistry of the entire part. The process offers advantages over typical flame and induction hardening methods that require the entire part to be heated, such as low thermal input, minimal distortion, higher part processing speeds and highly accurate case depths.
The LaserHeat service can be applied to many high-wear components such as spindles, transmission shafts, pump shafts, sleeves, locomotive engine cylinders, hydraulic cylinder rams, mixing paddles, and many other components that are continually exposed to volatile or stressful environments.
“Our new LaserHeat system is perfect for pinpoint protection on parts used in highstress, high-heat environments that cause advanced wear on critical components,” said Jim Kowske, president of Laser Cladding Services. “For example, we can take a normal spindle of 4140 steel and increase the surface hardness to 55 HRC with 0.020 inch of case depth and very minimal distortion. The process offers unparalleled surface hardening improvements.”