Effects of laser treatments on cavitation erosion and corrosion of AISI 440C martensitic stainless steel

Abstract Laser surface treatments with high and low fluence were employed to induce melting and transformation hardening on 440C. While melting could bring about better improvement in corrosion resistance, transformation hardening was more effective in enhancing the cavitation erosion resistance. Compared with conventional heat treatment, laser treatments resulted in higher corrosion resistance with a wide passive range in NaCl solution, and also in higher cavitation erosion resistance in both deionized water and NaCl solution.