A visit to Litron Lasers for conducting Laser Shock Peening Process Control Experiments!

It was a pleasure to visit Litron Lasers Ltd. today in Rugby. I spent the morning with Hans Taylor and Julian Sarkies to help establish process parameters and key issues in undertaking laser shock peening with meaningful effect. A 2.5J laser was used to shock a thin sheet of SS304 at low energies as per customer requirement. I provided the direction to successfully achieved nice looking peened samples from excessive burning and over peening that had previously resulted. We later measured the hardness and found that an increase in hardness of around 13% to 24% resulted with variety of applied parameters. Further collaborations in future are planned, where this type of activity will firstly, help Litron lasers to further develop a laser shock peening applications lab and understanding of material properties after laser shock peening. It will also help my research in future to employ their facility to undertake work in Laser shock peening and other areas where Nd:YAG pulsed lasers in ns range are of use.

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A 2.5J Litron Laser in Operation for undertaking the LSP trials.