Product Code: ICAL09_407

Laser Welding of Lap Joint Between Copper and Brass
Authors:
Peng Dong, Beijing University of Technology; Beijing Peoples Republic of China
Rongshi Xiao, Beijing University of Technology; Beijing Peoples Republic of China
Presented at ICALEO 2009

Copper and its alloys are widely applied in electronics industry, automotive industry refrigeration and air-conditioning industry et al., because of their excellent thermal conductivity. Traditionally, brazing and soldering are used to join them. However, those methods may bring some problems such as low efficiency and pollution. In this paper, a CW Nd:YAG laser with a output power of 2kW was used to weld lap joint between brass and copper, in which the thickness were 1.1mm and 1.5mm respectively. Due to the high reflectivity and thermal conductivity, laser welding of copper and its alloys became a challenge task. The results of penetration experiment show that brass was easy to form penetration in laser welding. In our experiment, the joint which brass putted over the copper was used to overcome the difficulties caused by the high reflection of copper. The focused laser beam irradiated at brass and penetrated from brass to copper. Through optimizing parameters, the seams with good formations were obtained. The characterizations of seam were observed by optical metallographic microscope, and electronic microscope. And the mechanical property of the joint was assessed by bursting test.