A new welding heat source consisting of a plasma arc and a coaxially superimposed low-power laser beam was developed. For this purpose, a single-mode fiber laser beam was guided through the hollow tungsten electrode of a commercial plasma welding torch. The capabilities of the corresponding welding process were experimentally analyzed for bead-on-plate welding trials on steels and aluminum alloys. Besides the evaluation of the resultant seam geometries also the behavior of the arc under the action of the additional laser beam was studied by means of arc voltage measurements and high-speed camera observations. The results of this study demonstrate so far beneficial improvements of the combined process in comparison to the single welding techniques. First, the melting efficiency can be significantly increased for particular parameter constellations. Secondly, the additional laser beam is very capable of stabilizing the arc attachment under conditions of low arc currents and/or high welding speeds. The experimental results also provided some new insights into possible physical reasons of the observed laser-arc interactions.
REFERENCES
1.
2.
R.W.
Messler
(2004
), Principles of Welding
, Weinheim
: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
.3.
W.M.
Steen
(1979
), Method and apparatus for cutting and welding
, US Patent, No. 4,167,662.4.
W.M.
Steen
and M.
Eboo
(1979
), Arc augmented laser welding
, Metal Construction
, Vol. 11
, No. 7
, 332
–335
.5.
W.M.
Steen
(1980
), Arc augmented laser processing of materials
, Journal of Applied Physics
, Vol. 51
, No. 11
, 5636
–5641
.6.
M.
Hamasaki
(1985
), Welding method combining laser welding and MIG welding
, US Patent, No. 4,507,540.7.
J.
Matsuda
, A.
Utsumi
, M.
Katsumura
, M.
Hamasaki
and S.
Nagati
(1988
), TIG or MIG arc augmented laser welding of thick mild steel plate
, Joining and Materials
, issue July
1988, 31
–34
.8.
E.
Beyer
, U.
Dilthey
, R.
Imhoff
, C.
Maier
, J.
Neuenhahn
and K.
Behler
(1994
), New aspects in laser welding with an increased efficiency
, Proc. of the Int. Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics, ICALEO’94
, 183
–192
.9.
E.
Beyer
, B.
Brenner
and R.
Poprawe
(1996
), Hybrid laser welding techniques for enhanced welding efficiency
, Proc. of the Int. Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics, ICALEO’96
, D157
–D166
.10.
P.
Seyffarth
, B.
Anders
and J.
Hoffmann
(1994
), Combination of laser beam arc welding
, Proc. of the 5th European Conf. on Laser Treatment of Materials, ECLAT’94
, Düsseldorf: DVS-Verlag
, DVS-Berichte No. 163, 377
–395
.11.
P.
Seyffarth
and I.V.
Krivtsun
(2002
), Laser-Arc Processes and their Applications in Welding and Material Treatment
, London
: Taylor & Francis
.12.
C.
Bagger
and F.O.
Olsen
(2005
), Review of laser hybrid welding
, Journal of Laser Applications
, Vol. 17
, No.1
, 2
–14
.13.
A.
Mahrle
and E.
Beyer
(2006
), Hybrid laser beam welding – classification, characteristics, and applications
, Journal of Laser Applications
, Vol. 18
, No. 3
, 169
–180
.14.
F.O.
Olsen
(2009
), Hybrid laser-arc welding
, Woodhead Publishing Limited
.15.
B.
Ribic
, T.A.
Palmer
and T.
DebRoy
(2009
), Problems and issues in laser-arc hybrid welding
, International Materials Reviews
, Vol. 54
, No. 4
, 223
–244
.16.
H.
Cui
, I.
Decker
and J.
Ruge
(1989
), Wech-selwirkungen zwischen WIG-Lichtbogen und fo-kussiertem Laserstrahl, Tagungsband Laser’89
, Berlin
: Springer-Verlag
, 577
–581
.17.
H.
Cui
, I.
Decker
, H.
Pursch
, J.
Ruge
, J.
Wendelstorf
and H.
Wohlfahrt
(1992
), Laserin-duziertes Fokussieren des WIG-Lichtbogens, Schweißen und Schneiden
92
, Düsseldorf
: DVS-Verlag GmbH
, DVS-Berichte No. 146, 139
–143
.18.
B.R.
Finke
, F.
Stern
and I.
Decker
(1991
), Auswirkungen eines unterstützenden Laserstrahls auf den WIG-Schweißprozess, Strahltechnik – Beam Technology
, Düsseldorf
: DVS-Verlag GmbH
, DVS-Berichte No. 135, 149
–152
.19.
I.
Decker
, J.
Wendelstorf
and H.
Wohlfahrt
(1995
), Laserstrahl-WIG-Schweißen von Alumin-iumlegierungen, Schweißen und Schneiden
95
, Düsseldorf
: DVS-Verlag GmbH
, DVS-Berichte No. 170, 96
–99
.20.
C.
Karthikeyan
, V.
Anbazhagan
, T.K.
Mitra
and A.V.
Murali Krishna
(1993
), Laser arc-augmented welding of stainless steel sheets
, Lasers in Engineering
, Vol. 2
, pp. 93
–109
.21.
P.W.
Fuerschbach
(1999
), Laser-assisted plasma arc welding
, Proc. of the Int. Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics, ICALEO’99
, Orlando
: LIA.22.
C.E.
Albright
, J.
Eastman
and W.
Lempert
(2001
), Low power lasers assist arc welding
, Welding Journal
, Vol. 80
, No. 4
, 55
–58
.23.
C.E.
Albright
, J.W.
Rich
, R.B.
Miles
, W.R.
Lempert
and S.O.
Macheret
(2002
), Method and apparatus for initiating, directing and constricting electrical discharge arcs
, US Patent, No. 6,483,077 B1.24.
B.
Hu
and G.
den Ouden
(2005
), Laser-induced stabilisation of the welding arc
, Science and Technology of Welding
, Vol. 10
, No.1
, 76
–81
.25.
U.
Stute
, R.
Kling
and J.
Hermsdorf
(2007
), Interaction between electrical arc and Nd:YAG laser radiation
, Annals of the CIRP, 56/1/2007
, 197
–200
.26.
J.
Hermsdorf
, A.
Ostendorf
, C.
Stahlhut
, A.
Barroi
, F.
Otte
and R.
Kling
(2008
), Guidance and stabilisation of electric arc welding using Nd:YAG laser radiation
, Proc. of the 3rd Pacific Int. Conf. on Applications of Lasers and Optics, PICALO 2008, paper 707
, 335
–340
.27.
C.
Emmelmann
, M.
Kirchhoff
and N.
Petri
(2011
), Development of plasma-laser-hybrid welding process
, Physics Procedia
12
, 194
–200
.28.
M.
Schnick
, S.
Rose
, U.
Füssel
, A.
Mahrle
, C.
Demuth
and E.
Beyer
(2009
), Experimentelle und theoretische Untersuchungen zur Wechselwirkung zwischen einem Plasmalichtbogen und einem Laserstrahl geringer Leistung
, Tagungsband zur Großen Schweißtechnischen Tagung, Schweißen und Schneiden, Messe Forum 2009.29.
S.
Rose
, M.
Schnick
, A.
Mahrle
, F.
Kretzschmar
, C.
Demuth
, U.
Füssel
and E.
Beyer
(2011
), Beeinflussung von Plasmaschweißprozessen durch Faserlaserstrahlung geringer Leistung – Teil 1: Experimentelle Untersuchungen, Schweißen und Schneiden
, 04
/2011, 170
–175
.30.
A.
Mahrle
, M.
Schnick
, S.
Rose
, C.
Demuth
, E.
Beyer
and U.
Füssel
(2011
), Process characteristics of fiber-laser assisted plasma arc welding
, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
, Vol. 44
, No. 34
, 345502
–345513
.31.
M.
Schnick
, S.
Rose
, U.
Füssel
, A.
Mahrle
, C.
Demuth
and E.
Beyer
(2012
), Experimental and numerical investigations of the interaction between a plasma arc and a laser
, Welding in the World
, Vol. 46
, No. 3/4
, 93
–100
.32.
A.
Mahrle
, S.
Rose
, M.
Schnick
, T.
Pinder
, E.
Beyer
and U.
Füssel
(2012
), Improvements of the welding performance of plasma arcs by a superimposed fiber laser beam
, Proc. of SPIE, Vol. 8239, High Power Laser Materials Processing: Laser Beam Delivery, Diagnostics, and Applications
, 12
pages.33.
M.
Eboo
& W.M.
Steen
(1979
), Arc augmented laser welding
, Metal Construction
, Vol. 11
, No. 7
, 332
–335
.
This content is only available via PDF.
© 2012 Laser Institute of America.
2012
Laser Institute of America
You do not currently have access to this content.