Patent ID: 7906745

Claim:
A quality control method for representing a laser peening intensity within a particular material, the method comprising: providing a laser peening system having a plurality of selectable process parameters; selecting the process parameters for the laser peening system; providing a bend bar comprised of the particular material, the bend bar having: (1) a bar length; (2) a characteristic maximum stress penetration depth for compressive residual stresses creatable by laser peening the bend bar using the selected processing parameters; and (3) a bar thickness at least twice the characteristic maximum stress penetration depth; choosing a single test surface on the bend bar that is parallel to the bar length and perpendicular to the bar thickness; laser peening a spot pattern along the test surface of the bend bar thereby causing compressive residual stresses to form within the bend bar, the compressive residual stresses inducing an out-of-plane deflection of the bend bar; measuring the deflection; and correlating the measured deflection to a level of compressive residual stress imparted to the particular material.