Product Code: ICAL06_501

Fault-tolerant Laser Welding in Automotive Industries
Authors:
Alexander Grimm, Bayerisches Laserzentrum gGmbH; Erlangen Germany
Christian Kägeler, Bayerisches Laserzentrum gGmbH; Erlangen Germany
Florian Albert, Bayerisches Laserzentrum gGmbH; Erlangen Germany
Michael Schmidt, Bayerisches Laserzentrum gGmbH; Erlangen Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2006

Laser welding is increasingly gaining importance in the automotive industry. The main advantages are the high flexibility of the process as well as the high possible welding speeds (up to 8 m/min for lap joints of two steel sheets with 0.8 mm thickness). As a protection against corrosion, zinc-coated or oil-contaminated sheet steel is often applied for manufacturing car bodies or vendor parts. These coatings do, however, negatively affect the quality of the weld seams, especially when welding with zero gap. Another trend in the automotive industry is the use of high-strength steels. The prevention of micro cracks as well as defined hardness and microstructure in weld seam and heat affected zone are some of the most important aspects for crash- relevant components. This publication presents recent investigation on process control for high-quality welding of contaminated and coated sheet steel as well as main strategies for influencing the microstructure of high-strength steels.