Laser Treatment of Textured X20Cr13 Stainless Steel to Improve Water Droplet Erosion Resistance of LPST Blades and LP Bypass Valves

X20Cr13, a martensitic stainless steel, is commonly used for the manufacture of low pressure steam turbine (LPST) moving blades and LP bypass valves of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. The LPST blades, at present, are laser surface treated to improve their water droplet erosion (WDE) resistance. The laser-treated X20Cr13 stainless steel has improved the water droplet resistance (WDER) several times compared to untreated ones. Further improvements are being carried out by providing a carbide-based HVOF coating having appropriate surface roughness or by creating textured surfaces and treating with a high power diode laser. The surfaces, having appropriate roughness, absorb more laser energy, resulting in improved microstructure, microhardness, modified ultimate resilience, and thicker hardened layer. The WDER of laser-treated textured X20Cr13 stainless steel has improved significantly compared to the untextured ones. The WDE test results of laser-treated textured and untextured X20Cr13 stainless steel along with their microhardness, modified ultimate resilience, microstructure, SEM, and XRD analysis are discussed and reported in this paper. The laser-treated textured X20Cr13 stainless steel is highly suitable for LP bypass valves and LPST blades for achieving a thicker hardened layer with lesser heat input to the components.