Laser treatment of 430 ferritic stainless steel for enhanced mechanical properties

Thin AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel sheets containing 18% Cr were hardened by continuous-wave laser beams under different conditions. A symmetric double laser treatment platform was developed to operate two lasers simultaneously in order to achieve a homogenous microstructure through the specimen and avoid the overheating associated with single laser treatments on one surface. The influence of linear energy density and shielding gas on microstructure and hardness is investigated for both single and double laser treatments. Tensile behavior and oxidation effect during treatment are also studied. With a peak temperature around Tm, the single-track laser yields local microhardness that is 90% higher than the base material, while samples completely treated by the multi-track laser present a 60% increase in yield stress and 45.8% in ultimate tensile stress. These improvements in mechanical behaviors are driven by the formation of martensite and chromium carbides upon rapid cooling despite poor carbon content and dramatic grain coarsening. These results could be useful in order to locally modify the behavior of medium chrome ferritic stainless steel to meet industrial requirements. •Laser heat treatment of 18% Cr ferritic stainless steel sheets is investigated.•Multi-track laser treatment improved yield stress by 60% and UTS by 46%.•Argon gas shielding is shown to mitigate oxide layer formation during laser treatment.•Double-sided laser treatment enables more homogeneous transformations through the thickness.•Flexibility and resolution of the process paves the way for architectured metallic materials.