Product Code: ICAL09_1607_1

Spectral Analysis of the Process Emission during Laser Welding of AISI 304 Stainless Steel with Disk and Nd:YAG Laser
Authors:
Ali Riza Konuk, University of Twente; Enschede Netherlands
Ronald Aarts, University of Twente; Enschede Netherlands
Bert Huis in't Veld, University of Twente; Enschede Netherlands
Presented at ICALEO 2009

Optical emissions from the laser welding process can be obtained relatively easy in real-time. Therefore it is very beneficial to establish a clear relation between characteristics of these
emissions and the resulting weld quality or the occurrence of welding defects for any of the laser types currently applied in industry. Most commonly used for continuous wave (CW) laser welding applications are the CO2 laser, the Nd:YAG laser, disk and fiber lasers. The disk lasers are relatively new developed and necessarily need to be characterized with respect to the nature of their plasma or plume generation. In this paper the process emissions of laser
welding with the disk laser and Nd:YAG laser welding for AISI 304 stainless steel are compared. Broadband spectral analysis between 200 nm and 1100 nm reveals spectral lines as well as the black body radiation emitted from bead-on-plate and overlap welding. The
relation between the process emission and weld quality is discussed.