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Full penetration laser beam welding of thick duplex steel plates with electromagnetic weld pool support

Avilov, Vjaceslav; Fritzsche, André; Bachmann, Marcel; Gumenyuk, Andrey; Rethmeier, Michael

Full penetration high power bead-on-plate laser beam welding tests of up to 20 mm thick 2205 duplex steel plates were performed in PA position. A contactless inductive electromagnetic (EM) weld pool support system was used to prevent gravity drop-out of the melt. Welding experiments with 15 mm thick plates were carried out using IPG fiber laser YLR 20000 and Yb:YAG thin disk laser TruDisk 16002. The laser power needed to achieve a full penetration was found to be 10.9 and 8.56 kW for welding velocity of 1.0 and 0.5 m min−1, respectively. Reference welds without weld pool support demonstrate excessive root sag. The optimal value of the alternating current (AC) power needed to completely compensate the sagging on the root side was found to be ≈1.6 kW for both values of the welding velocity. The same EM weld pool support system was used in welding tests with 20 mm thick plates. The laser beam power (TRUMPF Yb:YAG thin disk laser TruDisk 16002) needed to reach a full penetration for 0.5 m min−1 was found to be 13.9 kW. Full penetration welding without EM weld pool support is not possible—the surface tension cannot stop the gravity drop-out of the melt. The AC power needed to completely compensate the gravity was found to be 2 kW.
Published in: Journal of Laser Applications, 10.2351/1.4944103, Laser Institute of America (LIA), American Institute of Physics (AIP)
  • This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in V. Avilov et al., Journal of Laser Applications 28, 022420 (2016) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.2351/1.4944103.