The paper describes an experimental investigation of the electromagnetic porosity reduction in partial penetration laser beam welding of 6 mm thick aluminum die casting AlSi9MnMg. The Investigation reveals that the usage of an electromagnetic field leads to a significant reduction of the porosity as well as to a surface smoothing of aluminum die casting. Based on the reference case without an electromagnetic influence, the porosity area was reduced gradually up to 76%.
Metallurgical pores as well as process pores were removed from the weld pool. Also the weld reinforcement was improved up to 78%. Best results were reached with a frequency of 4325 Hz and a magnetic flux density of 348 mT. Although a complete prevention of porosity was not achieved, the best weld seam reached a high quality and can be ranked in valuation group B of DIN EN ISO 13919-2:2001–12.
The present paper investigates the electromagnetic porosity reduction in partial penetration laser beam welding of 6 mm aluminum die casting AlSi9MnMg. Applying an electromagnetic field, a significant reduction of the porosity as well as smoothing of the surface of aluminum die casting can be observed. Starting from the reference case without an electromagnetic support, the porosity was reduced by 76 %. Especially big pores can be removed from the weld pool effectively due to their beneficial volume-to-area ratio whereas very small metallurgical pores tend to remain within the weld pool even when higher magnetic flux densities are applied.