The effect of shot peening on the contact fatigue performance of C40 steel gears after laser surface melting

Abstract

In this paper, shot peening (SP) was employed as a post-processing technique for the laser surface melted (LSMed) gear. The aim was to improve the contact fatigue performance of laser surface melting+shot peened (LSMSPed) gears. The microstructure, surface roughness, residual stress, microhardness of C40 steel gears before and after SP treatment were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction stress analyzer, contour measuring instrument, and hardness tester. Fatigue test of gear was carried out with a Forschungsstelle für Zahnräder und Getriebebau (FZG) testing machine. Following the laser surface melting (LSM) treatment, a molten layer was observed on the gear teeth surface. The experimental results indicated that SP induced a hardened layer with a certain thickness and plastic deformation on the surface of LSMed gears. Importantly, as the SP parameters increased, there's a corresponding reduction in both the average grain diameter and the maximum grain diameter. The reduction was most pronounced when the shot diameter reached its maximum value. It's worth noting that once the optimal threshold for SP parameters is surpassed, the residual compressive stress and microhardness on the LSMSPed gear surface do not exhibit a continuous growth trend. Furthermore, the rise in SP parameters resulted in a gradual increase in the surface roughness of LSMSPed gears, albeit to varying degrees. In light of the combined effects of grain refinement, residual compressive stress, microhardness, and surface roughness, the contact fatigue performance of LSMSPed gears improved with increasing SP parameters. Notably, when comparing the contact fatigue life of LSMed gears with that of LSMSPed gears, we observed a substantial enhancement. However, it's essential to highlight that when the shot diameter reaches its maximum value, the contact fatigue life of the LSMSPed gear, somewhat unexpectedly, decreased.