Abstract
During the last decade, high power lasers (more than 1kW) have been applied in a wide range of field such as cutting, welding, quenching, glazing, alloying, cladding and spraying. In these processes, absorbents are necessary for the effective utilization of the laser energy and elimination of the hazard of beam reflection. Graphite is the most widely used energy absorbent for CO2 lasers.
This paper reports the advantages of boron nitride (hBN), which being used as a solid lubricant and as crucibles, as the CO2 laser energy absorbent. This has been verified by the quenching width and depth and the hardness of quenching texture of steel. This paper also reports that BN is useful auxiliary for the laser cladding of copper on steel; this cladding mechanism was investigated
