A model for carbonization of titanium surface by pulsed Nd:YAG laser was developed. The Ti substrate was covered with a relatively thick graphite layer prior to be processed under the laser beam. The experiments were performed at 15 J pulse energy with various pulse durations and overlapping factor to validate the results obtained from the numerical calculations. The model results such as temperature gradient, surface temperature, and the cooling rate were correlated with the micro-hardness of the alloyed layer. Higher pulse durations and overlapping factors which lead to the heat input increasing will result in significant rising in the micro-hardness values. The hardness values of the processed layer partially containing TiC, increased up to 10 times of the Ti substrate. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.