Improvement of hardness and wear-resistance of direct laser interference patterned bearing steel surface using laser surface heating approach

In this work, we report on the laser heat treatment of periodic topographies produced on bearing steel plates using Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP) technology. The hardening treatment allowed tuning the surface hardness from 210 to 827 HV. lf the combination of the patterning and laser hardening approaches permitted to improve the wear-resistance of the structured surface by ~ 50 % at contact point pressure of ~17.87 GPa. The outcomes indicated that by applying the proposed joined methodology it is conceivable to hold the higher hardness of the bearing steel plates and simultaneously to keep intact surface microstructures.