Iron ore powder accompanied by Si-powder as a reducing agent, was melted using a high-power laser beam. During laser melting of the two different powder beds placed next to each other, silicon merged and diffused into the iron ore, forming a ternary melt phase Fe-O-Si of around 30–60–10 at%. High speed imaging of the laser melting process as well as subsequent SEM-analysis of the generated nuggets showed the formation of droplets that merge with the surrounding Si- or ore-powder and form distinct domains. Under certain circumstances, the solidifying nuggets, of the order of 0.5–5 mm in size, generated numerous small domains, up to 25 µm, of high purity iron, 90 + at%, surrounded by a matrix of the above mentioned slag. Many of these Fe-domains were created in the vicinity of regions of high Si-content.

Surfaces generated by Additive Manufacturing or laser texturing can involve the solidification of droplets of liquid, which can give rise to overhanging features on the solidified surface. Overhanging features add a layer of complexity to the surface topography and are undetectable by standard surface roughness measurement techniques such as profilometry. Such features are important because they can have a considerable effect on surface properties such as wettability. New techniques and algorithms are therefore required to analyse and quantify convoluted surfaces with overhanging (re-entrant) features. Earlier work by the authors introduced the concept of using X-ray micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT) to identify the directions of vectors normal to the surface at any point and thus indicate the presence or absence of overhanging features. This paper divides overhanging features into two types; simple and compound, and introduces new, size independent, analysis techniques which measure what proportion of each type is on the surface. Another extension of the analysis is the comparison of surface profiles taken in different directions in order to identify any surface roughness anisotropies.

This work reports a study of the differences between laser processing of water and gas atomized low alloy steel powders with a focus on powder behavior and performance in additive manufacturing. Material packing densities were measured to establish a relationship between powder packing and track formation. The results showed that the track height when using water atomized powder was 15% lower than the value achieved for the gas atomized powder. High-speed imaging was utilized to observe the material behavior and analyze the powder particle movement under laser irradiation. It was found that water atomized powder has less particle entrainment due to its tendency towards mechanical interlocking. The occurrence of powder spattering and melt pool instabilities was also studied. More frequent spatter ejection is believed to be due to the higher amount of oxygen in the water atomized powder.

Convoluted rough surfaces involving overhanging features can be a natural consequence of laser additive manufacturing and other spray techniques or can be generated deliberately by laser surface texturing, e.g., to aid osseointegration. Overhanging features add an extra level of complexity to the topography of a rough surface and can have a substantial effect on wettability, etc. However, features of this type are invisible to traditional surface roughness measurement techniques. This work presents a computer-based surface analysis method that gives useful information about the presence and nature of overhanging features on rough technical surfaces. The technique uses micro-computer tomography to generate a typical cross section of the surface under investigation. The angles of the vectors normal to the surface can then be analyzed to reveal the presence of overhanging features, which can also be indicated by the standard deviation of the normal vector distribution. Titanium surfaces generated by six different techniques were compared. The characteristics of these surfaces varied strongly, as did the shapes of the overhangs involved. These variations are reflected by different statistical distributions of the normal vectors.

Pulsed lasers can be used to modify the surface of medical implants in order to accelerate bone growth (osseointegration). A surface covered in attached droplets with diameters between 1 and 20 μm is a beneficial surface for rapid osseointegration. This paper presents the results of an experimental program in which a broad range of laser parameters and different atmospheres were used to create different surface textures on titanium substrates, including the desired "attached droplet" topology. The resulting surfaces were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and micro-computer tomography. The paper explains how different types of surfaces are created by the laser-material interaction under different conditions and focus characteristics. It is shown that optimization of the laser parameters results in a robust process, which produces a surface that is fundamentally different from those created by nonlaser methods.

Before a contour can be laser cut the laser first needs to pierce the material. The time taken to achieve piercing should be minimised to optimise productivity. One important aspect of laser piercing is the reliability of the process because industrial laser cutting machines are programmed for the minimum reliable pierce time. In this work piercing experiments were carried out in 15 mm thick stainless steel sheets comparing a stationary laser and a laser which moves along a circular trajectory with varying processing speeds. Results show that circular piercing can decrease the pierce duration by almost half compared to stationary piercing. High speed imaging (HSI) was employed during the piercing process to understand melt behaviour inside the pierce hole. HSI videos show that circular rotation of the laser beam forces melt to eject in opposite direction of the beam movement, while in stationary piercing the melt ejects less efficiently in random directions out of the hole.

The use of carbon-filled black acrylic (CFBA) as a quantitative and qualitative analytical tool for fiber laser cutting is investigated. In the qualitative work, CFBA targets placed below the laser cutting zone when cutting stainless steel showed a distinctive “leaf” shaped evaporation crater which can provide information about the nature of the reflections taking place in the cut zone. Quantitative measurements have revealed a specific evaporation energy of 3.4 J/mm³ for CFBA. However, this figure is only applicable when considering intense beams when the CFBA target is stationary with respect to the laser beam.

Laser - material interactions such as welding, heat treatment and thermal bending generate thermal gradients which give rise to thermal stresses and strains which often result in a permanent distortion of the heated object. This paper investigates the thermal distortion response which results from pulsed laser surface melting of a stainless steel sheet. Pulsed holography has been used to accurately monitor, in real time, the out-of-plane distortion of stainless steel samples melted on one face by with both single and multiple laser pulses. It has been shown that surface melting by additional laser pulses increases the out of plane distortion of the sample without significantly increasing the melt depth. The distortion differences between the primary pulse and subsequent pulses has also been analysed for fully and partially overlapping laser pulses.

Cutting fronts created by CO₂ and fibre lasers in stainless steel at thicknesses between 2 mm and 10 mm have been ‘frozen’ and their geometry has been measured. Standard commercial cutting parameters were used to generate the cuts for both types of laser. The resulting three-dimensional cutting front shapes have been curve fitted as polynomials and semicircles. Various features of the cutting front geometry are discussed including the lack of correlation of the cut front inclination with either the relevant Brewster angle or the inclination of the striations on the cut edge.