Experimental research on laser heat treatment started in 1979. Initially, a small sample was used on a 250W low-power laser to verify the effect of phase transformation hardening on the steel surface. At present, the carbon dioxide laser can achieve a power of 10kW, and the laser, the light guide focusing system and the 5-axis workbench can all be manufactured by itself.
Carried out the experimental research of laser and electronic surface transformation hardening, melting and solidification, surface coating and surface alloying. Laser phase change hardening has been applied to machine parts such as automobile engine cylinder liners, elastic coupling main reeds, textile machine spindles, gauge block gauges, rock drill cylinders and other machine parts. FAW, Second Automobile, Beijing Internal Combustion Engine Plant, Xi’an Internal Combustion Engine Parts Factory have established laser hardening production lines for cylinder liners.
Over the past ten years, there have been more than a dozen high-power carbon dioxide lasers imported from abroad. At present, domestic equipment has basically replaced imported equipment.
The research and production units of high-power lasers include Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, Shenyang Mechanical and Electrical Design Institute, and Beijing Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The units undertaking the national 863 scientific research project and contributing to the application of laser heat treatment include Shenyang Institute of Metals, Beijing Machine Tool Institute, Beijing Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the former Ministry of Machinery, and Changchun Institute of Machinery. The former Beijing Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly developed a 15KW electron beam heat treatment device.