Laser Peening & Peen Forming For Maritime

Revolutionizing Vessel Design and Repair

Laser Peening is proven to extend the service lifetime of common shipbuilding metals like aluminum and steel by fighting failures like sensitization, corrosion, and fatigue cracking.

  • Protection

  • Fatigue Life
    Improvement

  • Stress Corrosion
    Cracking

  • Metal Shape Forming

  • Decrease Downtime

  • Proven ROI

Laser Peening in the Shipyard

Fatigue failure is a result of dynamic loads placed on different components of a ship. These failures are costly to repair and put the ship out of commission for far too long. Laser peening and laser peen forming applications can save time and money by efficiently protecting parts and extending the life of important aspects of the ship.

  • Ship Hull
  • Engines & Propulsion Systems
  • Ship Structure
  • Shafts
  • Propellers
  • Welded Joints
  • Bilge Keels
  • Metal Shape Forming
Ship Hull
Propellers

Figure 1: Ship Hull

Laser peening can demonstrate material improvements in a variety of metals for shipbuilding including: titanium alloys, steel alloys, stainless steels, nickel alloys, aluminum alloys, carburized and nitrided steels.

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Laser Peening & Forming

Laser peening can be tailored to correct distortions and form compound curvatures. This is called laser peen forming.

Because these distributions are readily responsive to today’s analytical modeling tools, we can use Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to simulate the imparted plastic strain along with the elastic response of the surrounding material. This allows accurate, scalable predictions that translate into a vast array of unique curvatures and shapes.

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  • Up to 10x Component Life Improvement
  • Prevents Costly Failures
  • Precisely Controlled and Localized Process
  • Decreases Downtime
  • Enables the Design of Lighter Weight Components
  • Reaches a Depth 10x Deeper Than Other Surface Enhancement Technologies

The Future of Shipbuilding and Repair

laser peen forming

Take a Look at Some Real-World Examples of the Impact of Laser Peening

naval ship

Laser Peening Applications for the Maritime Industry

Laser Shock Peening (LSP) has protected high-value aerospace parts for more than twenty years. Now, the shipbuilding industry looks to laser peening to reduce maintenance on critical naval vessels.

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Let’s Get Started – Find Your Maritime Solution

We guarantee that laser peening can provide protection against corrosion, cracking, and many other types of metal fatigue.

We begin by understanding your parts, their purpose, and operating conditions for shipbuilding and repair.

Then we use computer modeling, as well as our extensive library of industry applications to show how laser peening can meet your needs.

Let us show you how laser peening can extend the operating life of your part by 3-10 times.

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Maritime FAQs on Laser Peening

  • There are many important reasons why laser peening may be the optimal solution for your application:

    • Residual stress depth: Laser peening typically imparts residual stresses ten to twenty times deeper than shot peening, resulting in superior crack inhibition and fatigue resistance, and can reach as deep as 12mm.
    • Targeted application: Laser peening is only applied to critical, fatigue-prone areas, enhancing components where they need it most.
    • High process control: Laser peening is a computer-controlled process using integrated robotics to manipulate parts during processing. Laser peening parameters like power density and pulse width can be optimized for tailored compressive residual stress profiles.
    • Precision modeling: The compressive residual stresses imparted by laser peening can be reliably modeled prior to part processing using Finite Element Analysis (FEA).
    • Thermal stability: Laser peening imparts a lower percentage of cold work than shot peening, allowing laser peened parts to retain beneficial compressive residual stresses at high temperatures.
    • Complex geometries: Even from different incident angles, the stress wave generated by laser peening always propagates perpendicular to the part surface. This enables maximum compressive residual stress depth, even when applied to recessed areas like notches or grooves.

    Laser peening can be applied to almost any metal component.

  • The benefits of laser peening depend on processing conditions, material, and part geometry. Thick sections can see a 100% increase in fatigue strength compared to parts that have only been shot peened, while enhancements in thin sections can be much higher. Across a variety of applications and case studies, fatigue life of laser peened parts (measured in number of cycles to failure) has proven to be orders of magnitude greater than untreated or shot peened parts.

  • Yes, laser peening can be applied to fielded parts to extend their operational service life. Laser peening around existing cracks inhibits further propagation, and can return the fatigue tolerance of damaged parts to like-new condition.