Laser Surface Texturing - Their Applications

Severe operating conditions of lubricated contacts cause wear on a surface. The reduction of the components life time can be solved with laser surface texturing (LST) which is promising technologies allowing to optimize the surface micro-topography. LST produces a very large number of micro-dimples or grooves on the surface and each structure can serve as a micro-hydrodynamic bearing, a micro-reservoir for lubricant in cases of starved lubrication conditions or a micro-trap for wear debris. The present paper shows the basic principles of the laser ablation, an assembly to texture internal surfaces and examples of success where the LST was applied.