Laser surface hardening of AISI 4130 carbon steel was conducted with a high power diode laser using Response Surface Methodology. Scanning speed, laser power and focal plane position were considered as the input process variables and cross sectional geometry of the hardened area, average micro-hardness and the ferrite phase percentage were considered as process responses. The effect of parameters on the responses variations were investigated using analysis of variance. Microstructure evaluation of the laser hardened zone was performed using optical and field emission scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated that by increasing the laser power and decreasing the scanning speed and focal plane position, higher surface hardness with more penetration in depth, higher average micro-hardness and minimum ferrite percentage will be achieved. Finally, the process was optimized by desire ability approach based on the applied statistical analyses. Minimum value of percentage of the ferrite and maximum value of the other responses are considered as optimization criteria. The recommended optimized results were validated using the experimental tests. The results show that the hardness of the diode laser hardening process is 3 times of the hardness of the base metal. Laser-overlapping scanning is performed in the optimum setting and effect of overlapping percentage is investigated.
