Determination of the penetration hardness and analysis of stainless steel alloys by means of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

A significant feature of alloys is the surfaces hardness that is always accompanied by challenges when it’s measured by common mechanical techniques. In this investigation, we used Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) as a replacement method for common mechanical techniques to measure the surfaces hardness of different alloys. After recording the spectrum of alloy samples in order to identify the surface hardness of analyzed sample, K-Nearest Neighbors method (KNN) was used and obtained results showed that the LIBS-KNN method can separate and identify the surfaces hardness of samples with precision of 93.3%. In addition, in order to identify the percentage of constituent elements of alloys and their hardness, calibration approach was investigated that showed there is an appropriate linear relation between recorded emission lines from the LIB spectra of sample alloys and the percentage of their constituent elements and also their Vickers hardness numbers. Therefore, According to exclusive advantages of LIBS technique i.e. high speed analysis, non-destructive analysis and being portable, some of available difficulties in conventional mechanical techniques can be removed.