초록
Laser Material Processing has been replaced the conventional machining systems - cutting, drilling, welding and surface modification and so on. Especially, LTH(Laser Transformation Hardening) process is one branch of the laser surface modification process. Conventionally, some techniques like a gas carburizing and nitriding as well as induction and torch heating have been used to harden the carbon steels. But these methods not only request post-machining resulted from a deformation but also have complex processing procedures. Besides, LTH process has some merits as : 1. It is easy to control the case depth because of output(laser power) adjustability. 2. It is able to harden the localized and complicated a.ea and minimize a deformation due to a unique property of a localized heat source. 3. An additional cooling medium is not required due to self quenching. 4. A prominent hardening results can be obtained. This study is related to the surface hardening of the rod-shaped carbon steel applied to the lathe based complex processing mechanism, a basic behavior of surface hardening, hardness distribution and structural characteristics in the hardened zone.
