Product Code: ICA13_1502

Laser Micro Welding of Aluminum with the Superposition of a Pulsed Diode Laser and a Pulsed Nd:Yag Laser
Authors:
Philipp von Witzendorff, Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V.; Hannover Germany
Lorenz Gehrmann, Laser Zentrum Hannover E.V.; Hannover Germany
Stefan Kaierle, Laser Zentrum Hannover E.V.; Hannover Germany
Ludger Overmeyer, Laser Zentrum Hannover E.V.; Hannover Germany
Martin Bielenin, Ilmenau University of Technology; Ilmenau Germany
Jean Pierre Bergmann, Ilmenau University of Technology; Ilmenau Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2013

Pulsed laser welding with Nd:YAG lasers is applied for welding of thin aluminum sheets when the heat affected zone has to be minimized. Due to the pulsed operation of the Nd:YAG laser and the low absorptivity of aluminum for infrared radiation (~5 % @ 1064 nm) the achieved welding speed is small in comparison to continuous laser welding processes.
In this study, a conventional pulsed Nd:YAG laser is superposed with a diode laser (output power up to 100 W) to weld aluminum sheets with a thickness of 0.5 mm. The diode laser operates at a wavelength of approximately 808 nm in order to meet the absorption maximum of aluminum at this wavelength (~15 % @ 808 nm). The diode laser is emitting laser pulses with a pulse length of up to 100 ms and are synchronized with the laser pulses of the Nd:YAG laser.
With this combination an increase in penetration depth has been achieved due to the bigger molten pool induced by the diode laser.