COMPARISON OF TITANIUM METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE SURFACE LAYERS PRODUCED DURING LASER GAS NITRIDING OF Ti6Al4V ALLOY BY DIFFERENT TYPES OF LASERS

The article presents the results of a comparative study of the nitriding process of titanium alloy substrate using two lasers with different characteristics of laser beams. One of the applied lasers was a high power diode laser emitting at a dominant wavelength of 808 nm, with a rectangular laser beam spot, and multimode energy distribution across the spot. The second laser was a solid state Yb: YAG disk laser emitting at a wavelength of 1.03 mu m, with a circular beam spot, characterized by near Gaussian energy distribution across the spot. In a case of both lasers single stringer beads with a similar width and at similar energy input were produced. As a result of melting of the substrate with a laser beam in a pure gaseous nitrogen atmosphere composite surface layers with in situ precipitated titanium nitrides embedded in the metallic matrix of titanium alloy were produced, in both cases. However, the surface topography and structure is different for the surface layers produce by different lasers at the same processing parameters and width of laser beams.