Surface Modification of Austenite Stainless Steels by High Power Laser

Industrial applications need materials with special surface properties such as good corrosion resistance, wear resistance and high hardness. Always materials with these properties are very costly and it is of great interest to reduce the cost of the materials with these properties. A protective coating deposited to act as barrier between the surface and the material and the environment can significantly reduce/suppress the damage to the surface by acting as the first layer of defense. This book discusses the improvement of surface properties of the austenitic stainless steels such as AISI 316L and AISI 304L using high power CO2 laser source. Moreover, three different laser processing techniques such as laser surface alloying, cladding (preplaced technique) and blown powder cladding have been illustrated in detail by incorporating metal and ceramic powders as precursors.