Laser Peening

The Process of Laser Peening a Part

LSP Technologies, Inc. takes pride in taking care of your parts, from getting them here to getting them back to you stronger and more reliable. Laser peening is a surface enhancement technology that provides metal improvement of finished or near finished components.The depth of the beneficial compressive stress from laser shock peening allows for some follow up machining or other finishing processes, such as shot peening, drag finishing, etc…

OEMs and aftermarket manufacturers transport their parts to LSPT where they are laser peened. Parts range from small components less than 1 inch in volume and a few ounces in weight to large components tens of feet long and weighing more than 1 ton.

Once LSPT receives parts, staff members inspect them. The parts are then prepped for processing. This can involve a cleaning and/or applying a tooling fixture for production handling as well as having the parts uniquely labeled for quality assurance tracking.

The laser and laser peening work cell are then prepped. The laser being used is programmed with the part-specific required beam characteristics: energy, pulse width, and spot size. The work cell houses the part while it is being laser peened; it includes the part manipulator (a six-axis robot for small parts or special tooling for large parts), the laser beam delivery system (mirrors and lenses), and our RapidCoater™ overlay delivery system. The laser beam is focused to a fixed, stable position in space where the part is to be laser peened.

The parts are moved to the work cell and placed into processing position for the robot to automatically pick-and-place the parts for laser peening. The robot moves the part precisely so the area to be peened is exposed to the fixed laser beam.The RapidCoater™ overlay delivery system applies an opaque overlay per shot, the laser beam then hits, and a thin layer of water washes over to complete one laser peening process. Spot by spot, as the pulsed laser fires, the laser peening is completed.  Excess overlay material is collected and recycled.

Processed parts are moved out of the cell, the processing data and key characteristics are verified, the parts are cleaned and re-boxed, ready for shipping.

Did you know:

Laser peening produces deep, residual compressive stresses in the surfaces of metal parts, delivering increased fatigue life and damage tolerance.

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