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Solidification cracking phenomena taking place under controlled tensile weldability (CTW) test conditions have already been investigated both experimentally and numerically via FEA in order to get a better understanding of the mechanisms of hot crack formation during laser beam welding of austenitic steel grades. This paper develops a threedimensional finite element model employing the contact element technique to simulate the formation and propagation of solidification cracks during laser full penetration welding of fully austenitic stainless steel 1.4376. During the experimental procedure, the resulting strain and displacement directed to the laser beam in the close vicinity of the weld pool was measured at the surface of the workpiece using a digital image correlation (DIC) technique with an external diode laser as an illuminating source. Local strain fields, global loads and crack lengths predicted by the model are in good agreement with those observed in experiments.
A combined experimental and numerical approach is applied for a numerical analysis of the non-uniform martensitic transformation kinetic on welding residual stresses and distortion of a single pass weld. The (γ → α)-transformation kinetic within the weld pool region is governed by a non-uniform distribution of the elements chromium and nickel. The single-pass weld was performed by use of the low-alloyed high-strength steel S960QL with the high-alloyed high-strength filler wire CN 13/4-IG®. A thermo-mechanical FE model of the welding process was experimentally validated against temperature field, solid phase distribution, transformation behaviour, X-Ray stress measurements and transient optical distortion measurements.
The experimentally determined and calculated weld residual stresses and transient distortion are in good agreement. It can be shown that the change on the (γ → α)-transformation kinetic driven by the inhomogeneous distribution of the chemical contents causes a strong influence on the weld residual stresses within the volume of the weld pool, which could promote crack propagation within the solidified weld pool by use of high-alloyed filler materials. Furthermore, a significant influence on the development of the transient welding distortion is visible. This influence should be respected during numerically calculation of welding distortion in case of multi-pass welding using interpass temperatures and high-alloyed filler materials.
A combined experimental numerical approach is applied to determine the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP)-parameter K for different strength low-alloy steels of grade S355J2+N and S960QL as well as the super martensitic filler CN13-4-IG containing 13 wt% chromium and 4 wt% nickel. The thermo-physical analyses were conducted using a Gleeble® 3500 facility. The thermal histories of the specimens to be tested were extracted from corresponding simulations of a real gas metal arc weldment. In contrast to common TRIP-experiments which are based on complex specimens a simple flat specimen was utilized together with an engineering evaluation method. The evaluation method was validated with literature values for the TRIP-parameter. It could be shown that the proposed approach enables a correct description of the TRIP behavior.
Dissimilar metal weld overlays of nickel base alloys on low alloy steel components are commonly used in the oil and gas, petro-chemical, and power generation industries to provide corrosion and oxidation resistance in a wide range of service environments and temperatures. Traditionally, weld overlays are produced using cold or hot wire gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). Potential advantages of cold metal Transfer (CMT) welding, a low heat input gas metal arc welding process, over the conventional GTAW in production of weld overlays were evaluated. Metallurgical characterization was performed on CMT overlays of Alloy 625 filler metal on Grade 11 and Grade 22 steels. Significant grain refinement was found in the high temperature HAZ compared to the traditional coarse-grained HAZ in arc welding. Evidences of incomplete carbide dissolution, limited carbon diffusion, and incomplete transformation to austenite were also found. These phenomena were related to high heating and cooling rates and short dwell times of the high-temperature HAZ in austenitic state. Tempering effects in the steel HAZ were identified, showing a potential for development of CMT temperbead procedures. Based on the results of this study, the steel HAZ regions in CMT overlays were classified as high-temperature HAZ and intercritical HAZ.
Numerical sensitivity analysis of TRIP-parameter K on weld residual stresses for steel S355J2+ N
(2016)
A combined experimental numerical approach is applied for sensitivity analysis of the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP)-parameter K on weld residual stresses for welding of structural steel of grade S355J2+N. K was determined experimentally using the Gleeble 3500 facility. A thermomechanical FE model of the real welding process was experimentally validated against temperature field and X-ray stress measurements. Within sensitivity analyses K was varied by several orders of magnitude and the influence on the calculated residual stresses is evaluated by performing corresponding FEA. The correct order of magnitude is sufficient to reproduce the residual stresses qualitatively and quantitatively.
An electromagnetic weld pool support system for 20 mm thick duplex stainless steel AISI 2205 was investigated numerically and compared to experiments. In our former publications, it was shown how an alternating current (AC) magnetic field below the process zone directed perpendicular to the welding direction can induce vertically directed Lorentz forces. These can counteract the gravitational forces and allow for a suppression of material drop-out for austenitic stainless steels and aluminum alloys. In this investigation, we additionally adopted a steady-state complex magnetic permeability model for the consideration of the magnetic hysteresis behavior due to the ferritic characteristics of the material. The model was calibrated against the Jiles–Atherton model. The material model was also successfully tested against an experimental configuration before welding with a 30 mm diameter cylinder of austenitic stainless steel sur-rounded by duplex stainless steel. Thereby, the effects of the Curie temperature on the magnetic characteristics in the vicinity of the later welding zone were simulated. The welding process was modeled with a three-dimensional turbulent steady-state model including heat transfer and fluid dy-namics as well as the electromagnetic field equations. Main physical effects, the thermo-capillary (Marangoni) convection at the weld pool boundaries, the natural convection due to gravity as well as latent heat of solid–liquid phase transitions at the phase boundaries were accounted for in the model. The feedback of the electromagnetic forces on the weld pool was described in terms of the electromagnetic-induced pressure. The finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2 was used in this investigation. It is shown that the gravity drop-out associated with the welding of 20 mm thick duplex stainless steel plates due to the hydrostatic pressure can be prevented by the application of AC magnetic fields between around 70 and 90 mT. The corresponding oscillation frequencies were between 1 and 10 kHz and the electromagnetic AC powers were between 1 and 2.3 kW. In the experiments, values of the electromagnetic AC power between 1.6 and 2.4 kW at os-cillation frequencies between 1.2 and 2.5 kHz were found to be optimal to avoid melt sagging or drop-out of melt in single pass full-penetration laser beam welding of 15 and 20 mm thick AISI 2205.
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.
Increasing performance and energy efficiency of Gas Metal Arc Welding by a high power tandem process
(2016)
Standard Gas Metal Arc Welding (Standard GMAW) and a high power Tandem GMAW (TGMAW) process are evaluated with respect to energy efficiency. Current, voltage and overall equipment power are measured and energy consumption is determined. The new key performance indicator Electrical Deposition Efficiency is introduced to reflect the energy efficiency of GMAW processes. Additionally, wallplug efficiency of the equipment is determined in order to identify the overall energy consumption. Results show that energy efficiency as well as economic process performance can be significantly increased by application of the TGMAW process. Furthermore findings indicate that wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is independent of power level and material transfer mode. A metal plate of 30 mm thick structural steel is joined by Standard GMAW and TGMAW to demonstrate the total energy savings for a real weld. Electricity consumption is reduced by more than 20 % using the high power TGMAW process.
Selecting a welding process for a given application is crucial with respect to the sustainability of part manufacturing. Unfortunately, since welding processes are evaluated by a number of criteria, preferences for one or the other process can be contradictory. However, the prevalent procedure of weight assignment for each criterion is subjective and does not provide information about the entire solution space. From the perspective of a decision maker it is important to be able to assess the entire set of possible weightings and answer the question which welding process is optimal for which set of weights. This issue is investigated by means of a weight space partitioning approach. Two welding processes are considered with respect to three criteria that reflect their economic and environmental performance. In order to find the most sustainable welding process the underlying weight space partition is evaluated.
Spot welding is one of the most important joining technologies, especially in the automotive industry. Hitherto,the quality of spot welded joints is tested mainly by random destructive tests. A nondestructive testing technique offers the benefit of cost reduction of the testing procedure and optimization of the fabrication process, because every joint could be examined. This would lead to a reduced number of spot welded joints, as redundancies could be avoided. In the procedure described here, the spot welded joint between two zinc-coated steel sheets (HX340LAD+Z100MB or HC340LA+ZE 50/50) is heated optically on one side. Laser radiation and flash light are used as heat sources. The melted zone, the so called “weld nugget” provides the mechanical stability of the connection, but also constitutes a thermal bridge between the sheets. Due to the better thermal contact, the spot welded joint reveals a thermal behavior different from the surrounding material, where the heat transfer between the two sheets is much lower. The difference in the transient thermal behavior is measured with time resolved thermography. Hence, the size of the thermal contact between the two sheets is determined, which is directly correlated to the size of the weld nugget, indicating the quality of the spot weld. The method performs well in transmission with laser radiation and flash light. With laser radiation, it works even in reflection geometry, thus offering the possibility of testing with just one-sided accessibility. By using heating with collimated laser radiation, not only contactfree, but also remote testing is feasible. A further convenience compared to similar thermographic approaches is the applicability on bare steel sheets without any optical coating for emissivity correction. For this purpose, a proper way of emissivity correction was established.
In this paper, the friction stir welding process was numerically investigated for 6 mm thick aluminum alloy AA2024-T3. The finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics was used to calculate the transient thermal field during welding and the mechanical reaction depending on different mechanical clamping conditions and hardening models subsequently. A thermal pseudo-mechanical (TPM) heat source was implemented.
Softening effects of the material due to precipitation hardening dissolution caused by the frictional heat were accounted for. The transient temperature evolution measured by thermocouple elements at various locations was compared to the numerical results. A good agreement was found for the thermal field. A sensitivity study of the mechanical models showed the strong influence of the clamping conditions and the softening model.
Partial penetration welding with a fiber laser at a 9-kW laser power was carried out on 20-mm-thick plates at different positions and analyzed by both experimental and numerical methods. Experiments were carried out for four different angular positions at 1.5 m/min welding speed. All four cases showed a tail-like structure of molten pool on the top surface. The in-depth mechanisms of the energy input characteristics in fiber laser position welding for eight different positions were studied by numerical simulation using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. Experimental and numerical results were compared for four cases and showed fair agreement. Observation of flow pattern and bead shape revealed that gravity had little influence on bead shape and flow structure, but changed the pore structure considerably. Flow structure showed a periodic behavior which probably nullified the effect of gravity in position welding. Most of the laser rays reached the bottom of the keyhole without interruption and then multiple reflections started within the keyhole. The first five reflections inside the keyhole delivered around 70 % of the total energy.
The safety of components or constructions is of great importance in the manufacturing and processing of metallic materials. Solidification cracking as well as the weldability of materials remain still for many years a highly contentious issues, particularly with regard to the causes of the hot crack formation. Many of studies have been conducted to determine the critical condition of occurrence of the solidification cracking. In this study different digital image correlation measuring techniques in conjunction with laser diodes as the illuminating source have been employed to measure the arising strain field during the laser welding process at the surface of the workpiece directed to the laser beam in the close vicinity of the weld pool. The Controlled Tensile Weldability test (CTW) was used to apply an external tensile load during the laser beam welding in order to generate the solidification cracks. The results showed that by means of those techniques it is possible to measure the strain field without any disturbances from the intense welding light or the smoke. Additionally, the strain and the strain rate as a critical factor determining solidification crack formation can be measured and analyzed.
Controlling the dynamics in the weld pool is a highly demanding challenge in deep-penetration laser beam welding with modern high power laser systems in the multi kilowatt range. An approach to insert braking forces in the melt which is successfully used in large-scaled industrial applications like casting is the so-called Hartmann effect due to externally applied magnetic fields. Therefore, this study deals with its adaptation to a laser beam welding process of much smaller geometric and time scale. In this paper, the contactless mitigation of fluid dynamic processes in the melt by steady magnetic fields was investigated by numerical simulation for partial penetration welding of aluminium. Three-dimensional heat transfer, fluid dynamics including phase transition and electromagnetic field partial differential equations were solved based on temperature-dependent material properties up to evaporation temperature for two different penetration depths of the laser beam. The Marangoni convection in the surface region of the weld pool and the natural convection due to the gravitational forces were identified as main driving forces in the weld pool. Furthermore, the latent heat of solide-liquid phase transition was taken into account and the solidification was modelled by the Carman-Kozeny equation for porous medium morphology. The results show that a characteristic change of the flow pattern in the melt can be achieved by the applied steady magnetic fields depending on the ratio of magnetic induced and viscous drag. Consequently, the weld bead geometry was significantly influenced by the developing Lorentz forces. Welding experiments with a 16 kW disc laser with an applied magnetic flux density of around 500 mT support the numerical results by showing a dissipating effect on the weld pool dynamics.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is applied in evaluating environmental impacts of state-of-the-art welding technologies. Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Laser Arc-Hybrid Welding (LAHW) and two Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) variants are used to join a plate of 20 mm thick structural steel. The LCA results indicate that for 1 m weld seam, MMAW causes the highest environmental impacts in global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP), and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) among the selected processes, and the LAHW variant performances the least. Filler material and electricity consumptions generally dominate the impacts and reach shares of up to 80% and 61% in the respective impact categories. However, electrode coating consumption in MMAW remarkably contributes impacts on AP and EP, for instance 52% of AP and 76% of EP. Strategies for improvement of the applied welding technologies are discussed.
The industrial demand for flexible and innovative manufacturing technologies is continuously increasing. These technologies have to be sustainable and resource-efficient, and have to allow the production of long-life capital goods. Consequently, the additive processes gain in importance as they offer an enormous potential of application, especially for the turbomachinery industry.
In order to use additive manufacturing technologies in industrial applications, it is necessary to consider the complete process chain, including all necessary pre- and postprocessing. Although additive manufacturing is increasingly covered in scientific research, the linking between this technology and conventional industrial processes is rarely described.
This work addresses the fatigue strength of friction-welded joints for the drive pinion in heavy-duty trucks. Three different friction welding (FW) variants were tested for the joint between the pinion and the bevel of the shaft: (1) conventional FW using series materials, (2) conventional FW from dissimilar materials for every part, and (3) dissimilar joints by applying joint-site structure of FW. Each joint variant was compared to the series production part using a 4-point bending test. Results showed that the higher strength material slightly improved the fatigue strength of the conventional friction-welded joints. Despite the light weight of the component joined structurally at the site, the joint revealed a lower endurance limit compared to other variants. However, there has been little discussion on the weld zone position. The applied equivalent stresses on the weld zone of the joint-site structure are less similar to the position for the conventional FW. Characterization of the failure explains the extraordinary behaviors in relation to S-N curves.
Grain refinement is an important opportunity to improve mechanical properties of fusion welds and the weldability (susceptibility to solidification cracking) of the base metal. In this study, grain refinement was achieved in aluminium welds through additions of grain refiner to the weld metal. Increasing grain refiner additions led to a decrease of the weld metal mean grain size (down to −86 %). The grain refinement efficiency was the highest in commercial pure Al (Alloy 1050A, Al 99.5), followed by Alloy 6082 (Al Si1MgMn) and Alloy 5083 (Al Mg4.5Mn0.7). To investigate this clear influence of alloy content on grain size, the undercooling parameters P and Q were calculated. Temperature measurements revealed that solidification parameters such as solidification growth rate or cooling rate vary significantly along the solidification front, dependent upon torch speed and alloy. On the basis of this comparison, an analytical approach was used to model the columnar to equiaxed transition (CET). Moreover, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses revealed particles rich in Ti and B that are probably TiB2 particles coated by Al3Ti nucleating Al grains during solidification. Also, Ti/B contents needed in commercial filler wires to allow optimum weld metal grain refinement were calculated dependent upon base alloy and welding process.
Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) are prominent methods in the field of additive manufacturing technology. While the powder-bed based SLM allows the manufacturing of complex structures, buildrate and part volumes are limited. In contrast, LMD is able to operate with high deposition rates on existing parts, however shape complexity is limited. Utilizing their respective strengths, a combination of these two additive technologies has the potential to produce complex parts with high deposition rates.
In this paper, a process chain consisting of additive technologies SLM and LMD is described. The experiments are conducted using the alloys Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718. A cylindrical test specimen is produced and the microstructure along the SLM-LMD zone is described. In addition, this process chain was tested in the manufacturing of a turbine blade. The feasibility of implementing this process chain for small batch production is discussed. The results are evaluated to show advantages and limitations of the SLM-LMD process chain. This paper is relevant for industrial or scientific users of additive manufacturing technologies, who are interested in the feasibility of a SLM-LMD process chain and its potential for increased deposition rates.
This paper presents an approach to reconstruct the three-dimensional transient temperature field for fusion welding processes as input data for computational weld mechanics. The methodology to solve this inverse heat conduction problem fast and automatically focuses on analytical temperature field models for volumetric heat sources and application of global optimisation. The important issue addressed here is the question which experimental data is needed to guarantee a unique reconstruction of the experimental temperature field. Different computational-experimental test cases are executed to determine the influence of various sets of discrete experimental data on the solvability of the optimisation problem. The application of energy distributions utilised for laser beam welding allows reconstructing the temperature field efficiently. Furthermore, the heat input into the workpiece determined by the simulation contributes to the evaluation of the thermal efficiency of the welding process.
This paper deals with the use of an adaptive control system for compensating the variation in the gap height of a fillet welded lap joint. Gap bridging requires the input of additional filler material and is related to an increased energy input. Hence, the aim was a compensation of the effect of an increased heat input, in order to maintain the weld pool and excessive penetration, which can prevent consequently root reinforcement and burn-through. The findings achieved in this work show possibilities for a real-time controlled adjustments of the welding parameters in automated metal active gas (MAG) welding for compensating a higher heat input, in particular by means of the torch offset relative to the top sheet at the fillet weld on a lap joint.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) are applied in evaluating possible social and environmental impacts of the state-of-art welding technologies, such as Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Manual Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), Automatic GMAW and Automatic Laser-Arc Hybrid Welding (LAHW). The LCA results indicate that for 1 meter weld seam, MMAW consumes the largest amount of resources (like filler material and coating on electrodes) and energy, which contributes to comparatively higher environmental impacts in global warming potential, acidification, photochemical ozone creation potential and eutrophication than other chosen processes. With regard to social aspects, the health issues and fair salary are under survey to compare the relative potential risk on human health caused by fumes in different welding technologies, and to indicate the sufficiency of current salary of welders in Germany. The results reflect that the wage status of welders is still fair and sufficient. The manual processes bring much higher potential risk of welders health than the automatic processes, especially MMAW.
Understanding the influence of tool/pin shapes on the thermal and material flow behaviors in friction stir welding is of great significance for the optimal design of tool/pin based on a scientific principle. In this study, a numerical method based on computational fluid dynamics is employed to quantitatively analyze the thermo-physical phenomena in friction stir welding with two tools of different pin shapes (axisymmetrical conical tool and asymmetrical triflat tool). Through combining a steady state model with a transient state model, both the computation efficiency and accuracy are ensured. The boundary conditions of heat transfer and material flow are determined with considering a partial sticking/sliding contact condition at the toolworkpiece interface. The total heat generation, heat density and temperature distribution during the welding process with triflat tool are elucidated and compared with that of conical tool, and the material flow patterns and deformation regions of various pin orientations are illustrated in detail. It is found that the deformation zone caused by triflat tool is larger than that by conical tool, which is validated by the weld macrographs. The computed thermal cycles and peak temperature values at some locations are in good agreement with the experimentally measured ones.
The accurate prediction of the thermal energy generation and distribution in friction stir welding process is of great significance for the optimization of the process parameters and the understanding of the underlying mechanisms. In this study, a new method of integrative calculation and measurement is proposed to obtain the more reasonable values of the frictional coefficient and the slip rate, which are both used to characterize the heat generation rate at the tool-workpiece contact interfaces. A three-dimensional model is established to fully couple the energy generation, heat transfer and material flow in friction stir welding of aluminum alloys. The energy produced by both interfacial friction and plastic deformation are taken into consideration. The analysis accuracy of the thermal energy generation and distribution is improved, and the distribution features of thermal energy density in the vicinity of the tool are elucidated. The predicted peak temperature values at some locations are in agreement with the experimentally measured ones.
In todays automotive frame-and-body construction, laser welds are typically carried out as square butt welds in lap joints. These welds are increasingly produced by remote laser welding optics with working distances of 500 mm and more. This enables simple path programming because clamping devices are traversed over and therefore low cycle times with improved productivity is achieved. However, workpiece tolerances lead to part displacements and varying joint positions over time. These displacements have to be acted against by appropriate flange length that contain for positioning deviations. Using this concept, aspired light-weight optimisations, e.g. reducing flange length, are difficult to achieve. By using seam tracking sensors, part tolerances are automatically detected and counteracted for. In addition, joint edge detection allows constructive changes on the type of weld. Fillet welds reduce flange lengths', improve force flow and open up possibilities for visual quality monitoring. Apart from that, vertical displacements in the form of height tolerances still occur. This needs consideration by adapting the set of welding parameter to the current welding situation. In this respect, one main welding parameter is the lateral beam offset to the upper sheet. Since body-in-white welding applications mainly comprise of zinc-coated steel sheets, special requirements for the welding process are given. Especially zero-gap-welding and welding of joints with gaps larger than 0.2 mm are critical. Using a laser beam oscillation process can stabilise these situations. Approaches to finding parameter sets are presented in this paper.
The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of externally applied magnetic fields on the weld quality in laser beam welding. The optimization of the process parameters was performed using the results of computer simulations. Welding tests were performed with up to 20 kW laser beam power. It was shown that the AC magnet with 3 kW power supply allows for a prevention of the gravity drop-out for full penetration welding of 20 mm thick stainless steel plates. For partial penetration welding it was shown that an0.5 T DC magnetic field is enough for a suppression of convective flows in the weld pool. Partial penetration welding tests with 4 kW beam power showed that the application of AC magnetic fields can reduce weld porosity by a factor of 10 compared to the reference joints. The weld surface roughness was improved by 50%.
The ever larger requirements of the material selection in the range of maritime industry necessitate the application of high-tech materials. Titanium because of its excellent mechanical properties at low weight is an attractive alternative for the construction of ships. The goal of this investigation was to design a welding method for joining samples of 16 mm thick Ti3Al2.5 V. The welding experiments with a 20 kW Yb-fiber laser source and varying combinations of parameters were intended to qualify the laser beam welding process. The welding results were analyzed by non-destructive and destructive testing. In addition, the welding tests were recorded with two high-speed cameras to observe the weld pool and the vapor plume. The evaluation of the high-speed images in correlation with the results of non-destructive testing shows, that a significant improvement of process stability and weld quality can be achieved by the suppression of the vapor plume.
MAG welding is widely used for thin sheet metal applications such as car body structures due to its ability to tolerate a fair amount of deviation of the components from the ideal shape. In MAG welding, the process window is sufficiently large to accommodate the expected component tolerances. In practice, however, quality control is an issue since most welds are produced with parameters outside of the optimum range, especially in the case of automated MAG welding. To ensure best performance, a robust real-time control law is needed that adapts critical process parameters to the changing conditions, most notably the variation in gap height. Here, the gap-dependent adaptive control algorithm for the deposition of filler material and the related energy input comes into play. With an optical sensor that is mounted in front of the torch, the system measures the actual position of the two components in real-time during the entire welding process and the controller adapts the relevant parameters accordingly using a dynamic process model. This optimization ensures that only the required filler material is used and the associated energy input is tightly controlled to assure best quality even in a fully automated welding process.
Laser beam oscillation opens up new possibilities of influencing the welding process in terms of compensation of tolerances and reduction of process emissions that occur in industrial applications, such as in body-in-white manufacturing. The approaches are to adapt the melt pool width in order to generate sufficient melt volume or to influence melt pool dynamics, e.g. for a better degassing. Welding results are highly dependent on the natural frequency of the melt pool, the used spot diameter and the oscillation speed of the laser beam. The conducted investigations with an oscillated 300 µm laser spot show that oscillation strategies, which are adjusted to the joining situation improve welding result for zero-gap welding as well as for bridging gaps to approximately 0.8 mm. However, a complex set of parameters has to be considered in order to generate proper welding results. This work puts emphasize on introducing them.
One trend in today’s structural design for automobiles is towards application of stainless Steel in addition to traditional carbon Steel. This is mainly due to the advantages offered by stainless steel to the designer, i.e. its high corrosion resistance, heat resistance, strength and formability. Welding of austenitic stainless steel involves a high risk of solidification cracking due to low melting eutectics containing different kinds of impurities and to accumulated strain behind the weld pooi in the mushy zone. As a result, the quality of stainless steel welded joints will greatly be affected which may give cause for safety concerns. The intention of this study was to investigate the hot cracking sensitivity of laser welded fully austenitic stainless steels and to determine the critical local strain and strain rate from the formation of solidification cracks. C02-laser welding experiments were conducted using the steel X8CrMnNi19-6-3 (Nirosta H400). Solidification cracking susceptibility was examined with the help of the Controlled Tensile Weldability (CTW) Test developed by BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin. The critical strain and strain rate of solidification cracking was measured at the surface of the workpiece directed to the laser beam in the close vicinity of the weld pool by using the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique and diode laser as the illuminating source.
To satisfy the applied compressive stresses of friction welded drive pinion fabricated by using the joint-site structure (JSS) method, three different variants were followed: (A) the initial design with two joints was carried out. Two different burn-off lengths were examined for this variant. (B) The optimum burn-off length was considered for only one weld zone. (C) The weld zone was moved radially from the initial location and two different gap sizes were compared. The smallest gap size for the third variant led to the largest weld length. The lack of structural welding defects for this variant was assessed by ultrasonic testing. Hardness of the material after friction welding (FW) was correlated to the Continuous Cooling Transformation (CCT) diagram of the used materials and revealed the phase/microstructure transformation of the material. The simulated applied stresses on the optimized friction welded design of the drive pinion showed suitable results. The new drive pinion friction welded by the JSS method reduced the weight of the component by approx. 14%.
This paper investigates the numerical simulations of multi-kilowatt disk laser and fiber laser welding, ranging from 6 to 18 kW to study the behavior of molten pool in 20-mm-thick steel plate by using Volume-Of-Fluid (VOF) method and several mathematical models like Gaussian heat source, recoil pressure, Marangoni flow, buoyancy force, and additional shear stress and heat source due to the metallic vapor. Vortex flow pattern is observed for higher laser power except for 6-kW case, and the higher the laser power, the bigger the vortex flow pattern. Welding speed has an influence on molten pool in terms of depth of penetration and size of molten pool, but overall shape of molten pool remains the same. The reasons for the vortex flow pattern in high-power laser welding are the absorption of more energy at the bottom of keyhole, which promotes more liquid metal at the bottom, while for lower power with lower speed, the melt formation is more uniform in the thickness direction and most of the molten metal in the lower part of keyhole reaches the top of molten pool, and consequently, no vortex flow pattern is observed in the keyhole bottom.
Full penetration laser welding was carried out on a 10 mm steel plate using a 16 kW maximum power continuous wave thin disk laser. Upper surface and lower surface of molten pool were observed synchronously with two high speed CCD cameras during the welding process. The lower surface was much longer and more unstable than the upper one. A three dimensional laser deep penetration welding model in which volume of fluid (VOF) method was combined with a ray-tracing algorithm was used to simulate the dynamic coupling between keyhole and molten pool in laser full penetration welding. The calculated weld cross-section morphology and molten pool length on both upper side and lower side agree well with experimental results. Evolution of molten pool in lower side during full penetration laser welding was analyzed, periodical features of energy coupling, molten pool behavior and keyhole dynamics in laser full penetration welding were identified and discussed.
Bei der thermografischen Prüfung von Widerstandspunktschweißverbindungen wird die Emissivität der Fügeverbindung bisher als Störgröße angesehen und – wenn möglich – unterdrückt. Nachfolgende Arbeit untersucht, ob eine für diese Prüfung nutzbare Korrelation zwischen Emissionsgrad des Kappenabdrucks und Schweißpunktdurchmesser besteht. Dazu werden 60 Blechproben in drei praxisrelevanten Materialkombinationen und mit unterschiedlicher Anbindungsqualität vermessen. Über die thermografische Grundgleichung kann die Emissivität bestimmt werden. Der Punktdurchmesser wird zerstörend ermittelt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine Korrelation der beiden Messwerte auf, die umso höher ausfällt, je geringer die Emissivität des Grundwerkstoffes ist. Abschließend wird ein Ausblick auf die Verwendbarkeit dieses Zusammenhangs in der thermografischen Schweißpunktprüfung gegeben.
Laser GMA hybrid welds, producing partial penetration, were conducted on stiff tubes made of S460NH. Experiments, using a design-of-experiments plan were conducted to examine the influence of the welding parameters on the occurrence of solidification cracks. Results say that cracks diminish, when high levels of arc power are applied, while their number increases with rising laser beam power. The weld velocity had no measurable impact.
In welding experiments conducted on heavy wall pipes, the penetration mode (full or partial penetration) occurred to be a significant factor influencing appearance of solidification cracks. To explain the observed phenomena and support further optimization of manufacturing processes, a computational model was developed, which used a sophisticated strategy to model the material. High stresses emerged in the models in regions which showed cracking during experiments. In partial penetration welding, they were caused by the prevention of weld shrinkage due to the cold and strong material below the joint. Another identified factor having an influence on high stress localization is bulging of the weld.
Microcrack formation during gas metal arc welding of high-strength fine-grained structural steel
(2014)
The recent development of high-performance-modified spray arc processes in gas metal arc welding due to modern digital control technology and inverter power sources enables a focused spray arc, which results in higher penetration depths and welding speed. However, microcracks occurred in the weld metal while approaching the process limits of the modified spray arc, represented by a 20-mm double layer DV-groove butt-weld. These cracks were detected in structural steel exhibiting a yield strength level of up to 960 MPa and are neither dependent on the used weld power source nor a consequence of the modified spray arc process itself. The metallographic and fractographic investigations of the rather exceptional fracture surface lead to the classification of the microcracks as hot cracks. The effects of certain welding parameters on the crack probability are clarified using a statistical design of experiment. However, these microcracks do not impact the design specification for toughness in the Charpy V-notch test (absorbed energy at -40 °C for the present material is 30 J).
Quantitative evaluation of ultrasonic C-scan images in homogeneous and layered anisotropic austenitic materials is of general importance for understanding the influence of anisotropy on wave fields during ultrasonic non-destructive testing and evaluation of these materials. In this contribution, a three dimensional ray tracing method is presented for evaluating ultrasonic C-scan images quantitatively in general homogeneous and layered anisotropic austenitic materials. The directivity of the ultrasonic ray source in general homogeneous columnar grained anisotropic austenitic steel material (including layback orientation) is obtained in three dimensions based on Lamb's reciprocity theorem. As a prerequisite for ray tracing model, the problem of ultrasonic ray energy reflection and transmission coefficients at an interface between (a) isotropic base material and anisotropic austenitic weld material (including layback orientation), (b) two adjacent anisotropic weld metals and (c) anisotropic weld metal and isotropic base material is solved in three dimensions. The influence of columnar grain orientation and layback orientation on ultrasonic C-scan image is quantitatively analyzed in the context of ultrasonic testing of homogeneous and layered austenitic steel materials. The presented quantitative results provide valuable information during ultrasonic characterization of homogeneous and layered anisotropic austenitic steel materials.
A three-dimensional turbulent steady state numerical model was used to investigate the influence of an alternating current (AC) magnetic field during high power laser beam keyhole welding of 20 mm thick stainless steel AISI 304 being modeled as an ideal non-ferromagnetic material. Three-dimensional heat transfer and fluid dynamics as well as the electromagnetic field equations were solved with the finite element package COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2 taking into account the most important physical effects of the process. Namely, the thermo-capillary (Marangoni) convection at the weld pool boundaries, natural convection due to gravity and density differences in the melt volume as well as latent heat of solidliquid phase transitions at the phase boundaries were included in the model.
It is shown that the gravity drop-out associated with the welding of thick plates due to the hydrostatic pressure can be prevented by the application of AC magnetic field between 80 mT and 135 mT for corresponding oscillation frequencies between 1 kHz and 10 kHz below the weld specimen. Experimentally, a value of the magnetic flux density of around 230 mT was found to be necessary to allow for single-pass laser beam welding without sagging or drop-out of melt for a 20 mm thick combination of austenitic stainless steel AISI 304 and ferritic construction steel S235JRC at an oscillation frequency of around 2.6 kHz.
TRIP-steels offer a good combination between strength and ductility. Therefore TRIP-steels are widely used in the automobile industries. The aim of this work is to study the stability of involved phases during heating and to identify the kinetics of the occuring phase transformations. For that purpose, in-situ diffraction measurements, using high energy synchrotron radiation were conducted. The analysis revealed the decomposition of the metastable austenitic phase into carbide and ferrite along the heating process and the regeneration of the austenite by further heating of the sample.
Simultaneous measurement of tool torque, traverse force and axial force in friction stir welding
(2013)
Simultaneous measurement of the tool torque, traverse force and axial force during friction stir welding process is of great significance to the understanding of the underlying process mechanism and the optimizing of the process parameters. Different from the traditional measurement methods using load cell or rotating component dynamometer, an indirect but economical methodology is used in this study for the simultaneous measurement of the traverse force, axial force and tool torque by monitoring the output torques of the servo motors and main spindle three-phase AC induction motor inside the FSW machine. The values of the traverse force, axial force and tool torque are determined under different welding conditions, and the influencing factors are examined. The measured results in friction stir welding of AA2024-T4 aluminum alloys at different combinations of tool rotation speed and welding speed lay foundation for process optimization.
The aim of the present work was to investigate the possibilities of hybrid laser arc welding regarding reliable production of longitudinal welds of high strength pipe steels X80 and X120 and to evaluate achievable mechanical properties of laser hybrid welds. The study focused on weld toughness examination in low temperature range up to –60°C. Suitable filler materials were identified in the context of this task. It could be shown that metal cored electrodes guaranteed sufficient Charpy impact toughness at low temperature for both investigated materials. Modern arc welding technologies such as modified pulsed spray arc were used to promote deeper penetration of the filler material into the narrow laser welding gap. Edge preparation with a 14 mm deep root face was considered as optimum, because no penetration of the filler material could be detected beyond this depth limit, and therefore, any metallurgical influences on the weld metal properties through the welding wire could be excluded.
Design of experiments for laser metal deposition in maintenance, repair and overhaul applications
(2013)
Modern and expensive parts lead to an increasing demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) technologies. Instead of part replacement, MRO technologies are economically advantageous throughout the life cycle. Laser metal deposition as modern MRO technology can be used to repair cracks or protect damaged surfaces with a hard facing layer. It is necessary to adjust weld bead profile to the specific task. For this purpose, Design of Experiment (DoE) has a high potential to decrease experimental effort. In this paper, a full factorial design is used to determine the effect of process parameters on the geometric dimensions of the weld bead. The paper is of interest to engineers working with laser metal deposition as well as DoE methods.
Different types of lasers are used nowadays for a number of technological Solutions, Modem high power solid-state lasers with high brightness of Radiation like Fiber or disc lasers find ever more applications in welding technology. Apart from the replacement of the CC>2-iasers traditionaHy used fcr these purposes, they provide new technological possibilities of metal treatment, such as using industrial robots and remote welding with high power laser radiation. The possibility of flexible optical fiber delivery of the radiation to any point gives a great technological advantage and permits welding processes to be realized with complicated weld seam geomelries and different positions using a minimum of additional fixtures. The short wavelength of the high power solid state lasers (1.07 ’m) causes another advantage. The coefflcient of inverse 170
Bremsstrahlung absorption from free electrons in plasma for such radiation is about 100 times lower than for the COi-iaser radiation. Owing to this fact, using the solid state lasers allows it to avoid a negative influence of the welding plume.
However, a short wavelength can lead to another kind of laser Radiation attenuation, which is connected with the formation of a cloud consisting of small metal particles that absorb and scatter laser radiation. This cloud arises due to the condensation of hot metal vapor by flying out from the deep Penetration channel and broadening in relatively cold atmosphere over the metal Surface.
Some theoretical and experimental approaches were made in advance in Order to estimate the influence of the Condensed particles on laser radiation and welding quality.
In this paper a systematic study including the determination of the Cloud size and its dynamical characteristics is presented. The results were obtained within the scope of the first stage of the metal vapor condensation process Investigation during welding with high power fiber lasers.