Excimer laser treatment of nickel-coated cast iron

Nickel-coated cast iron was laser treated using pulsed excimer radiation. The amount of processing was varied by varying the laser power density, number of pulses per step and the overlap between consecutive steps. Mixing of the coating and substrate elements was observed. The surface roughness was a non-linear function of the laser pulse number. Surface layers presented higher microhardness as compared with the untreated material. The corrosion resistance of the laser-treated material was found to be a function of the number of laser pulses.