State of the Art in Laser Surface Texturing

Abstract

Surface texturing has emerged in the last decade as a viable op- tion of surface engineering resulting in significant improvement in load capacity, wear resistance, friction coefficient etc. of tribo- logical mechanical components. Various techniques can be em- ployed for surface texturing but Laser Surface Texturing (LST) is probably the most advanced so far. LST produces a very large number of micro-dimples on the surface and each of these micro- dimples can serve either as a micro-hydrodynamic bearing in cases of full or mixed lubrication, a micro-reservoir for lubricant in cases of starved lubrication conditions, or a micro-trap for wear debris in either lubricated or dry sliding. The present paper reviews the current effort being made world wide on surface tex- turing in general and on laser surface texturing in particular. It presents the state of the art in LST and the potential of this tech- nology in various lubricated applications like mechanical seals, piston rings and thrust bearings. The paper also describes some fundamental on going research around the world with LST.