Development of a flexible laser hardening & machining center and proof of concept on C-45 steel

The production of hardened precision parts is conventionally done in 3 steps. Rough machining of a workpiece in soft stage is followed by a hardening step, usually a batch process, and finalized by a hard machining finishing step. To omit the inevitable time delay and loss of accuracy because of part re-clamping, these steps should be incorporated within one flexible machining center. This paper describes the development of this machining center which allows machining and laser hardening in one setup, followed by a proof of concept for hardening C45 steel on this setup. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.