Product Code: ICAL07_210

Weld Penetration and Welding Phenomena of Aluminum Alloy with High-Power Fiber Laser
Authors:
Hiroyuki Nagayama, Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Masami Mizutani, Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Yousuke Kawahito, Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Seiji Katayama, Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Presented at ICALEO 2007

In this research, 10 kW fiber laser welding was carried out on aluminum alloy A5083. The fiber laser bead-on-plate welding was performed on aluminum alloy to investigate the effects of various welding conditions on penetration and defect formation. Especially, the effect of power density (from 10 kW/mm2 to 1.5 MW/mm2) or welding speed (from 0.6 m/min to 20 m/min) on weldability was examined. Consequently, it was found that the weld beads were narrower and deeper with an increase in laser power density. For example, fully penetrated weld beads in A5083 alloy of 10 mm in thickness was produced by 1.5 MW/mm2 laser power density at welding speed of 8 m/min. However, a convex-concave bead surface was obtained. Moreover, in the case of the high power density, no pore and many pores were present at high and low welding speed, respectively. On the other hand, in the case of the ultra-high power density, few pores were generated at high speed welding. These reasons were interpreted by observing keyhole behavior, bubbles formation and the molten pool geometry during high power fiber laser welding with a high-speed video and X-ray real-time transmission observation method.