AbstractThe pitting corrosion resistance of AISI 304 stainless steel (SS), which was laser melted in both nitrogen and argon atmosphere, was studied using the potentiodynamic anodic polarisation method. An attempt was made to introduce nitrogen onto the surface layers by melting in nitrogen atmosphere and argon atmosphere using a continuous wave CO2laser as the heat source at a power output of 3·06 kW at the laser head. The pitting corrosion resistance was determined by measuring the critical pitting potential during anodic polarisation. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was carried out on the laser melted surface to characterise the chemical composition. It was found that the pitting corrosion resistance of 304 SS was improved when laser surface melting was carried out in argon and was improved further when melting was carried out in nitrogen atmosphere. However, the improvement in pitting corrosion resistance in laser melted material was observed only in the reabraded condition and the pitting corrosion resistance in the as melted condition was lower than for the unmelted 304 SS. The improvement in localised corrosion behaviour was attributed to the increase of nitrogen content which was incorporated onto the surface layer during laser surface melting and this was confirmed using SIMS.MST/1530