Metallic article and a method of laser shock peening a metallic article

摘要

The present invention provides a metallic article (34) with at least one laser shock peened surface (54) on at least a portion of the article (34) and a plurality of volumetrically spaced apart laser shock peened protrusions extending into the article (34) from said laser shock peened surface (54) wherein the protrusions have deep compressive residual stresses imparted by laser shock peening (LSP). The invention may be further characterized by spaced apart circular laser beam spots on the surface from which the laser shock peened protrusions extend into the article such that the spots do not overlap. The present invention includes a method of laser shock peening a hard metallic article (34) by firing a laser beam (2) on different points of a laser shock peened surface (54) of at least a portion of the article (34) using a laser beam (2) with sufficient power to vaporize material on the surface around laser beam spots formed by the laser beam (2) at the points on the surface, flowing a curtain of water (21) over the surface upon which the laser beam (2) is firing, and firing the laser beam (2) so as to form a plurality of volumetrically spaced apart laser shock peened protrusions extending into the article from the spots such that the protrusions have deep compressive residual stresses imparted by laser the laser beam. The surface may first be coated with an ablative material (55) which the laser beam (2) vaporizes and the method may be an on the fly method of laser shock peening which further includes continuously moving the article (34) while continuously firing a stationary laser beam (2) which repeatably pulses between relatively constant periods.