Laser beam welding is used for joining zinc coated steel in the automotive industry. However, overlap laser welding of these steels remains difficult because of the low boiling temperature of the zinc compared with the melting temperature of the steel. It has been shown in some recent research that overlap welds are feasible without deliberately introducing a gap between the sheets before welding. In this paper results of overlap welding performed on coated steel with different zinc coating thickness are presented, which, contrary to expectations, suggest that steels with a thicker zinc coating have more stable laser welding process behaviour. A transient gap between the two sheets due to thermal deformation, coupled with the motion of liquid zinc around the weld, are put forward to explain the phenomena observed. It is also shown that the clamping system has a non- negligible influence on the root face weld quality, dependent on the volume of the efflux channel.
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3rd Pacific International Conference on Laser Materials Processing, Micro, Nano and Ultrafast Fabrication
April 16–18, 2008
Beijing, People's Republic of China
ISBN:
978-0-912035-89-5
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Effect of zinc coating thickness in gap-free laser welding of galvanized sheet steels
Y. Pan;
Y. Pan
1
Netherlands Institute for Metal Research
, Delft, Netherlands
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I. M. Richardson
I. M. Richardson
1
Netherlands Institute for Metal Research
, Delft, Netherlands
2
Delft University of Technology
, Delft, Netherlands
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Published Online:
April 01 2008
Citation
Y. Pan, I. M. Richardson; April 16–18, 2008. "Effect of zinc coating thickness in gap-free laser welding of galvanized sheet steels." Proceedings of the 3rd Pacific International Conference on Laser Materials Processing, Micro, Nano and Ultrafast Fabrication. PICALO 2008: 3rd Pacific International Conference on Laser Materials Processing, Micro, Nano and Ultrafast Fabrication. Beijing, People's Republic of China. (pp. pp. 185-190). ASME. https://doi.org/10.2351/1.5057003
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