Press and Mould Tool Hardening

If you’re in the mould and die market, one or more of your tools will need hardening sooner or later. When that day next comes, how long will you have to wait before that tool is back working productively for you?

Mould and die tools are normally hardened by induction furnace. Which means that the tool must be removed from the tool shop to a hardening facility for processing. Depending on the size of the tool, the entire process could take a matter of days even weeks. Whatever, the tool has to leave your premises so you are at the mercy of your supplier.

In-house Laser Hardening

You can harden your mould and die tools in a day - in-house and in-situ.

The Alpha Laser AL-Rock is the world’s first mobile robot for targeted laser hardening of metal surfaces. The laser is mounted on a self-propelled crawler chassis. When a tool needs hardening, you simply drive the laser to the tool. Once on site, the laser’s flexible wide sweeping robot arm will handle the most challenging workpiece contours. All it needs is free access to the workpiece to be treated. There are none of the time and labour consuming problems that come with dismounting and moving heavy components.

Cracking Resistant

The surface to be hardened by laser is heated very quickly and then almost simultaneously self-quenched by the cold value of the material. Material distortion is therefore minimised significantly. In fact, depending on the geometry of the workpiece, laser hardening could be categorised as a distortion-free treatment.

The end result is an extremely fine grained and tough structure, as hard as anything achieved by conventional methods. Materials hardened by laser are extremely resistant to cracking. All common metals can be laser hardened including tempered, structural, cold work and cast steels.

For details of how the AL-Rock can boost productivity in your tool shop, please contact sales@tlm-laser.com