Abstract

Temperature distribution was predicted using a computational and experimental means during a CO2 and fibre laser surface treatment of a Si3N4 engineering ceramic. The temperature of the CO2 laser surface treatment (LST) was 42% lower in comparison to that of the fibre laser. Both the bulk and the surface temperatures for the finite element model (FEM) were also higher for the fibre LST in comparison to the CO2 LST. This was due to the difference in the difference in the wavelengths and the brightness of the two lasers during the laser-Si3N4 interaction. Both the FEM and the experimental model enabled the prediction of additional process parameters for future development of laser surface treatment.