Improvement of the corrosion behavior of low carbon steel by laser surface alloying

• Laser processing of hot dipped steel formed Fe3Al and FeAl intermetallics. • Corrosion resistance of dipped steel increased 2 times after laser processing. • Corrosion resistance of base steel increased 5 times after laser processing. In the present study, an integrated layer of iron aluminides of FeAl and Fe3Al was formed on the surface of a low carbon steel sheet by a two-step process. The first step was hot dipping of the steel in a molten aluminum pool and secondly laser surface processing using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The corrosion resistance of the coated specimens was evaluated by activation polarization and Tafel methods. The results show that laser processing of the aluminized steel leads to a considerable increase in its corrosion resistance compared to both uncoated and merely aluminized materials.