Review: Laser shock peening as post welding treatment technique

Laser shock peening (LSP) is a modern and efficient thermo-mechanical approach to engineer and modify the surface and subsurface related properties of materials which has been frequently opted by contemporary researchers in the field of peening. The main objective of this review article is to emphasize LSP as a post weld treatment method which may help in the commercialization of LSP which is considered a challenge till date. Combining laser welding and laser shock peening could be an alternative and promising approach for improving weld quality over different conventional methods of post weld treatments. With this hindsight, reports incorporating welding and peening in last decades are reviewed. The notable effects of LSP on the mechanical properties and microstructure of different weldments are also discussed along with the classification and important parameters of LSP. We conclude that LSP can indeed be used as an effective post weld treatment (PWT) method in industrial manufacturing process.