Process for imparting residual compressive stresses to steel machine components

Abstract

A steel machine component, such as a bearing race, has a critical surface of generally circular configuration. Here the steel of the machine component exists in a state of compression to improve the physical characteristics of the surface. To this end, high speed steel is melted along the full circumference of the surface. Upon cooling to room temperature some of the austenite in the steel transforms into martensite. Tempering converts much of the remaining austenite into martensite, so that the machine component at the surface is almost entirely martensite. Martensite normally occupies a greater volume than austenite, but since the layer of martensite so formed is confined by the underlying core of the machine component, the layer exists in a state of compression. The high speed steel is melted with a laser beam that makes a trace over the full surface of the machine component. Where the underlying core is formed from high speed steel, the steel that is melted derives from the core itself, thus producing a glaze over the core. Where the underlying core is another type of steel, the high speed steel which is melted is supplied from an external source as a filler metal and becomes a cladding that lies over, yet is bonded to, the core.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.