Laser hardening

Sheet Metal Forming

Tools in contact with sheet material can suffer from excessive wear, particularly in places where there are high contact stresses and relative sliding motions. Laser hardening is ideally suited for contact surface hardening of these tools, with precise local application and short treatment times. This leads to minimum heat input and significant reduction or even elimination of the tool distortion and reliability issues that can occur during flame or induction hardening. Because the laser equipment is very flexible, it can be used to harden a wide variety of tool shapes and sizes.

Plastic Injection Molding

Hardening the edges of plastic injection molds is a growing application of laser beam hardening. This is fueled by the desire for an ever-increasing service lifetime of the molds, which can weigh up to ten tons. Laser hardening can also reduce the undesirable burrs on products, which can occur as a result of wear caused by the high injection pressures (ca. 1000 bar) and the use of abrasive media and fillers. Laser hardening of such plastic injection molds is superior over flame or induction hardening because of higher flexibility in dealing with complex shapes and large sizes.