Mechanisms for Improvement of Weld Appearance in Autogenous Fiber Laser Welding of Thick Stainless Steels

Metals

卷:8

Zhuming Bi¹  Yingzhe Zhang²  Shun Chen²  Mingjun Zhang²  Genyu Chen³ 

[1] Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46805, USA;

[2] Key Laboratory of Lightweight and Reliability Technology for Engineering Vehicle, Education Department of Hunan Province, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China;

[3] State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China;

关键词: fiber laser welding;    keyhole;    thick plate welding;    deep penetration;    weld appearance;    high-speed imaging;   

DOI  :  10.3390/met8080625

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

High-power fiber laser welding is an efficient and effective way to produce heavy section structures. However, there is a significant challenge in producing the welds with free of imperfections such as nail-head-shaped welds, spatters, and root sagging. This is partially due to a lack of understanding of the welding mechanism of high-power fiber laser. In this paper, we were especially interested in the mechanism to improve the appearance of welds, and we focused on the autogenous laser welding on thick stainless steel plates by a 10 kW fiber laser. To look into the relations of process parameters and the quality of welds, a high-speed imaging system was applied to observe the molten pool flow and vapor plume during the welding process. The appearances of welds subjected to different welding conditions were analyzed. The results showed that (1) nail-head-shaped welds were suppressed by using a gas jet during laser welding process. (2) In the forward welding, a gentle upwelling molten metal flow on the rear keyhole wall, a deeper weld pool and a weaker vapor plume resulted in no spatter. (3) The gravity affected the formation of underfills and root sagging significantly during autogenous laser welding of thick plates. (4) When the workpiece was placed vertically in the transverse position, the welding process was stable without an aggregation of molten melt at the back surface. Moreover, the mechanisms of forming root sagging and humps were different at the top surface.

【 授权许可】

Unknown