The purpose of the study is to improve the performance characteristics of powder pseudo-alloy materials using surface heat treatment. Such materials have unique properties, for example, self-lubrication under dry friction conditions, high thermal conductivity coefficient, and high electroerosion resistance. The disadvantage of powder pseudo-alloys is their relatively low strength. The paper considers the method of surface hardening by high-energy treatment - laser radiation. The paper describes the method of experimental research, describes the method of obtaining powder material, its chemical composition, shows the equipment used. The results of studies of the microstructure and microhardness of the surface layer of steel-copper powder pseudo-alloy after laser heat treatment (LHT) of a continuous-wave fiber laser with a maximum power of 1 kW are given, LHT modes are indicated, the influence of LHT parameters on the characteristics of the hardened layer is evaluated. It is revealed that the partial melting region in which melting occurs in the volumes of the fusible component (copper) in the initial structure and contacting segments of steel matrix is formed in the material in addition to the total melting zone. Then the quenching zone from the solid state follows, in which the maximal hardness up to 1000 HV is attained for best samples in the volume of martensite, which is formed in perlite colonies of the initial steel–copper material.

The performance of a product is generally characterized by more than one response variable. Hence the management often faces the problem of simultaneous optimization of many response variables. This study was undertaken to simultaneously optimize the surface hardness and case depth of carbonitrided bushes. Even though lots of literature has been published on various methodologies for tackling the multi-response optimization problem, the simultaneous optimization of heat treated properties of carbonitrided bushes are not reported yet. In this research the effect of four factors and two interactions on surface hardness and case depth of carbontirded bushes were studied using design of experiments. Based on the experimental results, the expected values of the heat treated properties of the bushes were estimated for all possible combination of factors. Then the best combination which, simultaneously optimized the response variables, was arrived at using desirability function. The study showed that the optimum combination obtained through desirability function approach not only minimized the variation around the targets of surface hardness and case depth but also was superior to the ones obtained by optimizing the response variables separately. Moreover this study provides a useful and effective approach to design the production process to manufacture bushes with customer specified surface hardness and case depth targets.