• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.52-62
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• 1998

Laser beam welding of zinc-coated steel, especially lap joints, has a problem of zinc vapor produced during welding which has a low vaporization temperature of 906.deg. C. It is lower than the melting temperature of steel (1500.deg. C). The high pressure formed by vaporization of zinc during laser welding splatters the molten pool and creates porosities in weld. During laser lap welds of zinc-coated steel sheets with CW CO$_{2}$ laser the gap size has been analyzed and simulated using a FEM. The simulation has been carried out in the range of gap aetween 0 and 0.16 mm. The vaporized zinc gas has effected to prevent heat from conducting toward the bottom of sheets. In vaporized zinc gas has effected to prevent heat from conducting toward the bottom of sheets. In the case of too small gap size, zinc gas has not ejected and existed between two sheets. Therefore heat was difficult to conduct from the upper sheet to lower sheet and the upper sheet could over-melted. In the case of large gap size the zinc gas has been prefectly ejected but only a part of lower sheet has melted. The optimum range of gap size in the lap welds of zinc-coated steel sheets has been calculated to be between 0.08 and 0.12 mm. According to the comparison of experiment, the simulation is proved to be acceptable and applicable to laser lap welds.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.256-259
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• 2000

High viscosity mixing powder is a very useful material for laser cladding. This material has a high viscosity so that it can be sticked to substrate. Therefore, Laser cladding can be performed on a curved or slope surface. Laser cladding can be easily performed with the material instead of wire that is difficult to be manufactured in some case. In this experiment, it was used a high viscosity mixing powder which consists of a high temperature flux and a bronze powder. And AC2B alloy material was used as a substrate. Flux prevents the clad layer from being oxidized and increases bonding property between substrate and cladding material. It makes possible to laser cladding at low level energy.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.30-34
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• 2003

This paper describes the heat distribution characteristics of ASTM A131DH36 high tensile steel for ship structures in 5㎾ $CO_2$ laser welding. In general, high energy of laser beam concentrates on the small area of the weldment instantaneously; therefore, this heat transfer mechanism induces the rapid changes of temperature and mechanical characteristics in laser welds this mechanism. So temperature distribution analysis is important to understand mechanical characteristics of laser welds. Authors have conducted finite element simulation to analyze the heat distribution characteristics in laser welds. The result of simulation has been verified by comparing with the metallurgical experiment result. From the result of this study, we can accurately predict the heat distribution characteristics in laser welds by using numerical simulation.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.186-190
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• 1996

Laser cladding is a technique for modification on surface in materials. This study describes a laser cladding equipment design and the results of laser cladding nickel on rolled steel for general structure. The laser clsdding equipment designed to consider continuous supply, a fixed quantity. The material used MC plastic. Laser cladding condition is found out by processing parameters. The experiment advanced to suppy substrate with powder. The substrate is rolled steel for general structure(KS D 3503) and powder is using the nickel powder for the corrosion resitance, wear resistance and surface hardness of materials. When the substrate travel on X-Y table, laser beam irradiates to prevent from oxidize with shielding gas on it. The obtained specimens measure the victors hardness test. For the research laser cladding results make a comparative study the microstructure.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.96-106
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of laser source($CO_2$ and Nd:YAG) on the microstructure and tensile properties of laser welded Al-Si coated boron steel(1.2mmt) was investigated with before and after hot-stamping. In case of as welds condition, fracture occurred in base metal unrelated to the laser source. It could be explained that tensile strength of fusion zone composed of martensite and bainite is higher than that of base metal that contains a lot of ferrite despite dilution of Al and Si from coating layer to fusion zone. In case of hot-stamping condition, the fracture occurred in fusion zone irrelevant to laser source and the tensile strength was lower than hot stamped base metal. In the $CO_2$ laser welds, $Fe_3$(Al,Si) formed near the bond line was transformed into ferrite during hot-stamping. Therefore tensile strength of bond line is lower than that of base metal and center of fusion zone and the fracture occurred in the bond line. On the other hand, in the Nd:YAG laser welds, the higher concentration of Al formed the ferrite in the fusion zone during hot-stamping treatment. Also, the thickness of centerline was thinner than that of base metal. Therefore, it is considered that fracture occurred in centerline of fusion zone due to effect of concentration stress, and it leaded to a lower tensile strength and elongation.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.42-51
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• 1999

This research was conducted as a fundamental study to apply tailored blank welding technique into automotive production process. The materials used in this study were 2.0mm thickness low carbon steel sheets and 1.2mm Zn-coated low carbon steel sheets. To ensure the reproducibility and to consider various factors, experiments were. conducted by applying Taguchi experimental method with 6 factors. Every welding process was repeated 3 times to offset the effect of uncontrolled factors. Elongation and LDH(Limited Dome Height)were measured to evaluate formability of specimens and Optical microscopy, XRD, SEM, and EDS analysis were performed to observe the microstructures and to determine the solidification mode in the weld. The elongation of specimen welded with optimum condition was 83% of base metal, and LDH was 84% of base metal. In case of laser treated specimen where Zn coating was removed, elongation was 85% of base metal, and LDH was 85% of base metal. In fusion zone, phases were consisted of quasi-polygonal ferrite, banitic ferrite, and martensite.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.18-20
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• 2003

Optimal processing and system to produce the laser welded tube for one body formed bumper beam are studied. The calculated size of tube is a thickness of 1.4mm, diameter of 105.4mm and length of 2000mm. The tube is shaped from cool rolled high strength steel sheet(tensile strength: 60kgf/$\textrm{mm}^2$ grade). Two roll bending method is the optimal tube shaping process compared to UO-bending, bending on press brake, multi-step continuous roll forming and 3 roll bending methods. Weld quality monitoring and seam tracking along the butt-joint lengthwise to the tube axis are also studied. The longitudinal butt-joint is welded by the $CO_2$ laser welding system equipped with a seam tracker and plasma sensor. The constructed $CO_2$ laser tube welding system can be used for the precision seam tracking and the real-time monitoring of weld quality. Finally, the obtained laser welded tube can be used for one-body formed automobile bumper beam.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 1999

This study introduces the new concept in the evaluation criteria of the $CO_2$ laser Tailored Blank weldability, The materials used are 0.7mm, 1.5mm thick low carbon automotive galvanized steels. Welding tests were conducted for both similar thickness(0.7mm-0.7mm, 1.5mm-1.5mm) and dissimilar thickness(0.7mm-1.5mm) cases. The criteria developed for optimum welding conditions were based on relationship between results of die press forming test, weld transverse tensile test Erichsen test and weld penetration measurements. Application of the developed criteria(fracture ratio, strength ratio and D/To) in obtaining optimum welding condition revealed that a weld which satisfied any of the criteria did not fracture during actual die press test.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.84-86
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• 2003

The laser welding and its analysis of thin-sheet carbon steels were carried out with high power CO$_2$1aser. Bead on plate welding of thin sheet was examined to investigate the effect of weld variables of laser welding, and to obtain optimum welding condition. Butt-welding was also carried out to show the effect of gap on the laser weldability of thin sheet. At high welding speed, the partial penetration was obtained by low heat input. Otherwise, porosity was formed in the bead at low weld speed because of too many heat input. The maximum gap tolerance on laser welding was observed to be about 0.2mm. This gap size has good relationship with beam size of laser spot(about 0.3mm). The formability of welded sheet was about 80% value of base metal and the gap size has not affected on the formability, although weld quality is dependent on the gap size.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2002

After high power lasers are avaliable in the commercial market, the number of applications of the laser welding has been increased in manufacturing industries. Although the tailored blank laser welding of butt jointed steel sheets is well known recently in the automotive industries, the lap joint laser welding is a new technology to the automotive manufacturing people as well as the design people. But the deep penetration laser welding seems to be preferred to the partial penetration welding for the lap joint welding in the automotive manufacturers because the partial penetration is a serious deflect for the butt joint. In this study, the feasibility of partial penetration welding fur the lap joint $CO_2$ laser welding was studied fur the 1mm thick 390MPa high strength steel sheets for automotive bodies. The process window of the lap joint partial penetration welding was obtained from experiments with the gap size and the welding speed as process parameters. The partial penetration welding was found excellent on the basis of the tensile shear strength and sectional geometry. The bead width, input energy Per volume, tensile-shear strength, deformation energy and the sectional geometries after tensile-shear tests of partial penetration welded specimens are compared with those of full penetration welded specimens with a series of gaps and welding speeds.