Characteristics of laser melted AISI-T1 high speed steel and its wear resistance

Abstract

For many wood machining processes, the interest of tool steels remains very important because of their good tool edge accuracy and easy grinding. The main problem is their low resistance to wearing and moderately toughness. To increase their performance, a laser treatment applied on the tool edges was presented in this paper. First, the surface of AISI-T1 samples was scanned by a laser beam with varying laser treatment conditions (laser power and scanning speed). Second, an investigated laser treatment condition promising good characteristics (high hardness, high melt volume, no cracks) was chosen and applied on T1 peeling tool edges, then its wear resistance was tested for peeling beech wood. The experimental results show that the microhardness of the melted T1 samples was affected by the laser power and the scanning speed. The microhardness was slightly increased with increasing laser power and with decreasing scanning speed. The microhardness of the melted T1 samples under each treatment conditions after three times one hour each tempering at 550°C was higher than that of the conventionally hardened T1. The melt volume of the laser treated T1 samples was also increased with increasing laser power and with decreasing scanning speed. The laser treatment condition with a laser power of 3000 W and a scanning speed of 200 mm min⁻¹ was considered to provide good characteristics and was applied for melting the edge of T1 peeling tool. The wear resistance and wear pattern of the melted T1 peeling tool in peeling beech was better than those of the conventionally hardened T1 peeling tool.

Keywords:

• T1 HIGH SPEED TOOL STEEL
• LASER POWER
• SCANNING SPEED
• MICROHARDNESS
• ABRASION WEAR