Laser Surface Treatment in Smart Manufacturing Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Laser surface treatment has emerged as a powerful approach for tailoring the surface properties of engineering materials while maintaining the integrity of the bulk substrate. Processes such as laser surface hardening, laser cladding, and laser alloying enable precise control of microstructure and residual stresses, leading to significant improvements in wear resistance, corrosion resistance, fatigue performance, and other tribological properties of components. Laser-based surface engineering is well suited for smart manufacturing systems due to its high precision, flexibility, and compatibility with automated and digitally controlled manufacturing environments. The integration of laser surface treatment with real-time monitoring, computational modeling, and data-driven optimization presents new opportunities to enhance process control and material performance in advanced manufacturing systems.

Key themes and article types for submissions:

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles and reviews. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Emphasizing the integration of laser processing with smart manufacturing technologies, including real-time sensing, data analytics, and cyber–physical production systems.
• Physics-based modeling, computational simulation, and data-driven approaches to improve the understanding of laser–material interactions and enable optimized process performance.
• Intelligent process monitoring and control, including machine learning, digital twins, and in situ diagnostics.
• Convergent manufacturing approaches, where laser surface treatment is integrated with complementary manufacturing processes.
• Robotic automation and collaborative robotics in laser surface treatment systems.
• In situ monitoring and non-destructive testing of laser surface treatment in smart manufacturing.
• Laser surface treatment of materials for tailored tribological, corrosion, and mechanical performance.
• Laser surface texturing to create controlled micro- or nano-scale patterns on surfaces.
• Sustainable laser surface treatments (energy efficiency, waste reduction).
• Laser surface treatment of advanced materials (composites, high-performance alloys, biomaterials, novel materials).

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. AMM Nazmul Ahsan
Dr. Farid Ahmed
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Machines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• laser surface treatment
• laser surface texturing
• smart manufacturing
• Industry 4.0
• AI/machine learning
• process monitoring and control
• digital twin
• advanced manufacturing