Influence of Laser Ablation on Stainless Steel Corrosion Behaviour

Laser ablation is the method for material removing from a surface using pulsed lasers. It is used for surface structuring, laser drilling or laser marking. A change of the corrosion behavior of a base material caused by thermal effects during laser processing is an important problem of this technology. Possibilities of surface modification of stainless steel using laser ablation are presented in this contribution. The most important processes that take place during laser treatment of material surface are described. The influence of laser processing parameters on resulting material surface state and a possible connection of laser parameters with corrosion tests results are discussed.