Laser shock processing is an advanced surface modification technology that can effectively improve the mechanical properties of alloy and metallic materials by using laser-induced plasma shock waves, and it has wide applications in the field of aerospace industry.

 

The surface roughness, micro-structure, hardness and residual stress, etc. are very important parameters to evaluate the quality of laser shock processing. However, the measurements of these parameters are mainly offline methods. These methods are inefficient and unable to change process in time, which restrict the large-scale industrial production of laser shock processing. So it is necessary to develop non-destructive online detection technology of Laser shock processing

 

Recently, a research team at Shenyang Institute of Automation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed an acoustic online detection system of laser shock processing. The study was published in Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics.

 

During the process of laser shock processing, signal acquisition system will collect the acoustic signal by means of online. Then, the acoustic signal is analyzed and the acoustic characteristic parameters of the material is extracted. According to the obtained acoustic characteristic parameters, the quality of laser shock processing is predicted and evaluated.

 

Their research was co-supported by the NSFC-Liaoning Province United Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Development Program of China and National Science and Technology Support Program.

 

The laser shock processing equipment system (photo by QIAO Hongchao)