Electric heating – Metal heating – By arc
Patent
1996-03-01
1998-06-02
Mills, Gregory L.
Electric heating
Metal heating
By arc
21912183, 118623, B23K 2600, C23C 1404
Patent
active
057603626
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for treating a material having a miniaturized photoionic head.
Over a wide variety of surfaces of objects having very small sizes and which are difficult of access, it permits the performance of the following micro-localized treatments:
It more particularly applies: prostheses in situ on a patient), in order to bring about a reinforcement of the enamel and the resistance to caries, or destroying of functions of components of a microcircuit, producing new types of alloys for electrical connections), watch-making), atmosphere, submarine medium.
It is known that the ionic implantation of certain chemical species in the surface layer of certain alloys modifies the surface mechanical properties thereof (resistance to wear, friction, sand abrasion, corrosion, etc.).
Moreover, it is known that among the effects induced by the impact of a laser beam on a solid material, there is the appearance of an ionized vapour and frequently a plasma which, by their expansion effects, induce a recoil wave which can itself lead to a surface hardening of the material from which said vapour and said plasma have come.
It is also known that the impact of a laser beam on a surface layer deposited on a transparent support can induce, by transmitting the laser beam through said support, the evaporation of the deposited layer which can therefore be subsequently condensed on another support.
It is also known that the deposition of a thin film by cathodic sputtering can be assisted by the impact of a laser beam on the film during condensation and growth.
This has the consequence of improving the deposited film qualities (cohesion, adhesion, dielectric properties).
Reference should be made in this connection to:
(1) French patent application application 8306749 of 25 Apr. 1983, Process for Amorphous Growth of a Material with Crystallization under Radiation, Andre Chenevas-Paule, Robert Cuchet and Jean-Fran.cedilla.ois Eloy, cf. also EP-A-127499 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,617.
It is also known that the combination or coupling of several effects (such as explosive evaporation, ionic implantation induced by an electric potential difference for separating electronic and ionic charges, the thermal wave induced by the condensation of the ionic plasma, the ultra-fast hardening induced by the heat well represented by the thermal capacitance of the material receiving said ionic plasma) rendered simultaneous by the use of a high power, pulsed laser beam, can give rise to material surface layers having novel mechanical and physicochemical properties able to improve their use (resistance to wear, friction, sand abrasion, corrosion, etc.).
Reference can be made in this connection to:
(2) French patent application 8602568 of 25 Feb. 1986, Process and Apparatus for Treating a Material by a Thermoionic Effect with a View to Modifying its Physicochemical Properties, Jean-Fran.cedilla.ois Eloy, cf. also EP-A-239432 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,628.
The known shockwave surface treatment apparatuses do not make it possible to take advantage of the aforementioned processes and phenomena for all surface forms or parts to be treated.
Thus, the known apparatuses are cumbersome, particularly with regards to that described in document (2), the linear propagation of the laser beam used therein requiring: laser beam to said surface to be treated, material source for the shockwave and on the other as a reference surface fixing the propagation direction of said shockwave (which is induced by the evaporation due to the laser) towards the material to be treated, wave of the ionized plasma so as to guide it in the direction of the surface to be treated, said insulating ring also serving as a spacer separating the layer to be exploded from the surface to be treated.
These different elements of the apparatus described in document (2) limit the application thereof to planar or possibly slightly inwardly curved surfaces.
Moreover, the geometrical characteristics of the laser beam used in said apparatus limit
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Commissariat a l''Energie Atomique
Mills Gregory L.
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