Investigation of the Effects of the Different Laser Powers on the Steel Surface

Abstract

In this study, grooves were created on a 3 mm thick steel plate by using a carbon dioxide laser at different laser powers at a constant speed. High-resolution images of the laser-processed surfaces were taken with a high-resolution stereo microscope. The molten zone and heat-affected zone widths of the troughs were measured using the images. To reduce the error rate, measurements were made from 5 different regions on the obtained grooves. Finally, the changes in the molten zone and heat-affected zone widths against the applied laser power were examined graphically. As a result, it has been observed that the widths were increasing by laser power with slowing down. Heat Affected Zone and Molten zone widths have changed at the same rate. As the energy transferred to the material surface increases, both the Heat Affected Zone and the molten zone width has increased. The applied laser power has been studied from 40 W to 115 W. Heat Affected Zone Size increased almost linearly when laser power was increased from 40 W to 80 W. It has been observed that the HAZ size increase was less for higher power values.