Surface modification of 7075‐T6 aluminium alloy by laser melting

A high power diode laser has been used for surface melting of a 7075-T6 aluminium alloy in order to induce changes in the microstructure, which could lead to an improvement of its corrosion performance. The treatment produces a fine dendritic microstructure region at the surface, whose depth depends mostly on the temperature at the surface of the material and, only marginally, on the scanning speed of the laser beam. An analysis of the microstructure and second phases before and after the surface treatment is presented in this paper. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.