Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
The present work deals with the development of a strategy for the prevention of end crater defects in high-power laser welding of thick-walled circumferential welds. A series of experiments were performed to understand the influence of the welding Parameters on the formation of end crater defects such as pores, cracks, root excess weld metal and shrinkage cavities in the overlap area. An abrupt switch-off of the laser power while closing the circumferential weld leads to a formation of a hole which passes through the whole welded material thickness. A laser power ramp-down causes solidification cracks which are initiated on the transition from full-penetration mode to partial penetration. Defocusing the laser beam led to promising results in terms of avoiding end crater defects. Cracks and pores in the overlap area could be effectively avoided by using defocusing techniques.
A strategy for avoiding of end crater imperfections was tested on flat specimens of steel grade S355J2 with a wall thickness of between 8 mm and 10 mm and then transferred on the 10 mm thick pipe sections made of high-strength pipeline steel API5L-X100Q.
With global increases in clean energy demand, the natural gas is gaining in importance. Pipelines are the safest and most cost-effective way of transporting natural gas. Due to high transport volume and resulting high operation pressure, the demand for ultra-high strength steel grades such as X120 is very strong. As a result of the fact that these steels are produced by thermo-mechanical controlled processing, the welding process must be selected accordingly. Based on investigations, a high heat input such as by submerged arc welding process leads to softening in the weld metal and loss of strength whereas pure laser beam welding results in high cooling rates and deteriorate toughness of the weld metal. The objective of this research is to investigate the influence of heat input to mechanical properties of hybrid laser-arc welded pipeline steels of grade X120. Test specimens with a thickness of 20 mm could be welded without preheating in a single-pass with different welding velocities to observe the largest possible parameter window of the heat input. The achieved V-notch impact energy for hybrid laser-arc welded samples was 144±37 J at a testing temperature of -40 °C. With a tensile strength of 930±4 MPa the requirements of API 5L was achieved. To prevent gravity drop-outs at the slow welding speeds, an electromagnetic weld pool support system was used, which works contactless and is based on generating Lorentz forces. It was therefore possible to control the cooling rate in order to meet the requirements of the mechanical properties. By adapting the electromagnetic weld pool support to the laser and laser hybrid welding process, the application potential of these technologies for industrial implementation can be drastically increased.
Results of experimental investigations of the relationship between laser-hybrid welding process parameters, type of the filler metal and the mechanical properties of the welds made from 9% nickel cryogenic steel X8Ni9 are discussed. The results contribute to the development and conversion in the industrial practice a new laser beam-based welding technology for the automated manufacturing of LNG tanks. The remarkable heterogeneity in the chemical composition of the weld metal as well as an insufficient impact toughness could be indicated by using austenitic filler wire. The most promising results were achieved by applying 11%Ni filler wire, which is similar to the base material. A correlation between impact toughness and wire feeding speed could be shown. The highest impact toughness was 134 J at -196°C. The laser-hybrid welds passed the tensile test. The failure stress of 720 MPa with a fracture location in the base metal was achieved for all samples tested.
The presented study deals with the performing and mechanical testing of single pass hybrid laser-arc welds (HLAW) on 25 mm thick plates made of steel grade S355J2. One of the challenges have to be solved at full penetration HLAW of thick plates is the drop formation occurring due to the disbalances of the forces acting in the keyhole and on the melt pool surface. Such irregularities mostly limit the use of high-power laser beam welding or HLAW of thick-walled constructions. To overcome this problem, an innovative concept of melt pool support based on generating Lorentz forces in the weld pool is used in this work. This method allows to perform high quality welds without sagging even for welding of 25 mm thick plates in flat position at a welding speed of 0.9 m min-1. For the obtain of full penetrated welds a laser beam power of 19 kW was needed. A high V-impact energy of up to 160 J could be achieved at the test temperature of 0 °C. Even at the most critical part in the weld root an impact energy of 60 J in average could be reached. The tensile strength of the weld reaches that of the base material. An introduce of the HLAW process with electromagnetic support of the melt pool in the industrial practice is an efficient alternative to the time- and cost-intensive arc-based multi-layer welding techniques which are established nowadays for joining of thick-walled constructions.
The advantage of selective laser melting (SLM) is its high accuracy and geometrical flexibility.
Because the maximum size of the components is limited by the process chamber, possibilities must be found to combine several parts manufactured by SLM. An application where this is necessary, is, for example, the components of gas turbines, such as burners or oil return pipes, and inserts, which can be joined by circumferential welds. However, only a few investigations to date have been carried out for the welding of components produced by SLM. The object of this paper is, therefore, to investigate the feasibility of laser beam welding for joining SLM tube connections made of nickel-based alloys.
For this purpose, SLM-manufactured Inconel 625 and Inconel 718 tubes were welded with a Yb:YAG disk laser and subsequently examined for residual stresses and defects. The results showed that the welds had no significant influence on the residual stresses. A good weld quality could be achieved in the seam circumference. However, pores and pore nests were found in the final overlap area, which meant that no continuous good welding quality could be accomplished. Pore formation was presumably caused by capillary instabilities when the laser power was ramped out.
Laserhybridschweißen von dickwandigen Stählen mit elektromagnetischer Schmelzbadunterstützung
(2019)
Die steigenden Anforderungen in Hinsicht auf Sicherheitsfaktoren von gefügten Bauteilen führen zu einer Zunahme der zu schweißenden Bauteildicken. Das Laserstrahl-Lichtbogen-Hybridschweißverfahren – verbreitet im industriellen Einsatz vor allem im Schiffs- und Windkraftanlagenbau – ermöglicht das einlagige Fügen von dickwandigen Strukturen. Eine Herausforderung stellt das Schweißen von dickwandigen Bauteilen mit reduzierter Geschwindigkeit in Wannenlage (PA-Position) da. Sie ist aufgrund des erhöhten hydrostatischen Druckes und die daraus resultierenden Tropfenbildung an der Wurzelseite bedingt realisierbar. Die im Rahmen dieser Studie eingesetzte elektromagnetische Schmelzbadunterstützung wirkt dem gravitationsbedingten Austropfen der Schmelze entgegen und kompensiert den hydrostatischen Druck. Dabei werden unterhalb der Schweißzone mit Hilfe eines extern angelegten oszillierenden Magnetfeldes Wirbelströme im Werkstück induziert, die eine nach oben gerichtete Lorentzkraft erzeugt. Die Lorentzkraft wirkt dem hydrostatischen Druck entgegen und stellt einen sicheren Schweißprozess ohne Tropfenbildung dar. Mit dem Hybridschweißverfahren mithilfe der elektromagnetischen Schmelzbadunterstützung gelingt es mit einem 20-kW Faserlaser bis zu 30 mm dicke Bleche in einer Lage zu schweißen. Bei 25 mm dicken einlagig geschweißten Platten aus S355 konnte ein Spalt bis 1 mm und ein Kantenversatz bis zu 2 mm sicher überbrückt werden. Die Reduzierung der Schweißgeschwindigkeit hat eine Verringerung der notwendigen Laserleistung zur Folge und begünstigt außerdem die mechanisch-technologischen Eigenschaften, infolge der reduzierten Abkühlgeschwindigkeit. Durch die geringe Martensitbildung führt dies zu einer Verbesserung der Kerbschlagzähigkeit.