• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.23 no.3 s.180
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• pp.47-55
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• 2006

Laser welding of dissimilar metals has been widely used to improve a wear resistance and a corrosion resistance of the industrial parts. The objective of this research is to investigate the influence of the process parameters, such as the welding for SM45C and STS304 with CW Nd:YAG lasers. The bead-on-plate welding tests are carried out for several combinations of the experimental conditions. In order to quantitatively examine the characteristics of the dissimilar welding, the welding quality of the cut section, stress-strain behavior and the hardness of the welded metal are investigated. From the results of the investigation, it has been shown that the optimal voiding condition without defects in the vicinity of the welded area and with a good welding quality is 1600W of the laser power, 0.85m/min of welding speed and $4{\ell}/min$ of pressure for shielding gas.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2016

The Nd:YAG laser welding process is one of the most advanced manufacturing technologies owing to its high speed and penetration, and has increased the automation and flexibility of an entire industry. Laser welding of dissimilar metals has been widely used to improve the wear resistance and corrosion resistance of industrial parts. The objective of this research is to investigate the influence of process parameters on the welding of SM45C and STS304 with CW Nd:YAG lasers. Bead-on-plate welding tests were carried out for several combinations of the experimental conditions. In order to quantitatively examine the characteristics of the dissimilar welding, the welding quality of the cut section, strain-stress behavior, and hardness of the welded part were investigated.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.54-58
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• 2008

Laser welding with AZ61 filler wire was carried out to improve formability though reduction of porosity and formation of under fill bead. Optimum welding condition and mechanical properties of butt joint for $400{\times}500{\times}1.3mm$ magnesium sheets were studied. Optimal welding conditions of laser power, welding speed, and defocusing length are 1000W, 3m/min, and 2mm, respectively. Results of tensile test indicated that both tensile strength and elongation of specimens welded with filler wire were improved at room temperature because of reduction of porosity and under-filled bead formation in addition to the precipitation hardening and microstructure refinement by Al-Mn and Mg-Al-Zn precipitates. At elevated temperature of $200{\sim}350^{\circ}C$, fracture location of tensile specimen was shifted from weld metal to base metal, indicating less softening of weld metal than base metal.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.100-110
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• 1998

In this paper, the laser weldability of thin gage steels for automobile application is discussed. Welding was carried out with a high power carbon dioxide laser system, and the laser energy was concentrated through a plano-convex lens. Test results showed that the joint gap in the butt welding proved to be one of the critical conditions for an acceptable weld. In the case where the ratio of the gap clearance to the material thickness was slightly bigger than optimal value, the weld strength was reduced showing weld metal fracture. It was possible to obtained a weld penetration ratio of 0.91 when the vertical offset ratio was controlled to be 0.4 or smaller. Results also demonstrated that the weld strength of the lap joint was influenced by travel speed. At the travel speeds lower than 37 mm/s, the weld strength indicated higher value than that of class A recommendation strength of a resistance spot weld based on the KS code. It was clear that the complicated effect of specimen alignment should be considered so as to make a sound weld with high integrity when the laser process was applied to the long weld line.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.7-13
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• 2002

A comparison of the welding performance of ship hull structural steels has been made. The weldability of steels especially designed for laser processing was compared to that of conventional hull and structural steels with plate thicknesses up to 12 mm. Autogenous laser beam welding was used to weld butt joints as well as skid and stake welded T-joints. The welds were assessed in accordance with the document "The Classification Societies" Requirements for Approval of $CO_2$ Laser Welding Procedures" Small imperfections in the weld only grew slightly in root bend tests and they only had a minor influence on the fatigue properties of laser fillet welded joints. In Charpy impact tests, the 27 J transition temperature of the weld metal and HAZ ranged from below -60 to $-50^{\circ}C$. The amount of martensite in the weld metal depended on the carbon equivalent of the steel with the highest amounts and highest hardness levels in conventional EH 36 (389 HV 5). Thermomechanically rolled steels contained less martensite and showed a correspondingly lower maximum hardness.ximum hardness.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 1998

This paper deals with the effect of laser welding parameters on the weld formation. Thin steels for automotive application were prepared so as to be welded with high power carbon dioxide laser system. Major process parameters were position of focus and travel speed. The effect of shielding gas was also discussed by employing the high speed photometry. Test results showed that the optimal position of focus varied in accordance with the joint configuration; bead-on-plate, butt or lap welding. It was recommended that the position of focus for the lap welding be located at slightly inner part of the material to be welded. In this case, however, it was noticeable that the weld penetration ratio, d/t$_{0}$ dropped drastically at the critical region. Results also demonstrated that both the bead width and penetration reduced as the travel speed increased. The penetration ratio showed two distinct regions; stabilized zone at the lower range of the travel spped and sudden drop zone at the higher range of travel speed. Lower limit of the penetration for acceptable weld was proved to be about 90% of the parent metal thickness based on the physical properties of the weld. Mixed gas application for both the shielding of molten metal and laser induced plasma control was recommended as far as the penetration was concerned.d.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.29-29
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• 2009

On this research, laser welding technology for manufacturing automobile body is studied. Laser welding technology is one of the important technologies used in the manufacturing of lighter, safer automotive bodies at a high level of productivity; the leading automotive manufacturers have replaced spot welding with laser welding in the process of car body assembly. Korean auto manufacturers are developing and applying the laser welding technology using a high output power Nd:YAG laser and a 6-axes industrial robot. On the other hand, the robot-based remote laser welding system was equipped with a long focal laser scanner system in robotic end effect. Laser system, robot system, and scanner system are used for realizing the high speed laser welding system. The remote laser welding system and industrial robotic system are used to consist of robot-based remote laser welding system. The robot-based remote laser welding system is flexible and able to improve laser welding speed compared with traditional welding as spot welding and laser welding. The robot-based remote laser systems used in this study were Trumpf's 4kW Nd:YAG laser (HL4006D) and IPG's 1.6kW Fiber laser (YLR-1600), while the robot systems were of ABB's IRB6400R (payload:120kg) and Hyundai Heavy Industry's HX130-02 (payload:130kg). In addition, a study of quality evaluation and monitoring technology for the remote laser welding was conducted. The welding joints of steel plate and steel plate coated with zinc were butt and lapped joints. The quality testing of the laser welding was conducted by observing the shape of the beads on the plate and the cross-section of the welded parts, analyzing the results of mechanical tension test, and monitoring the plasma intensity and temperature by using UV and IR detectors. Over the past years, Trumf's 4kW Nd:YAG laser and ABB's IRB6400R robot system was used. Nowadays, the new laser source, robot and laser scanner system are used to increase the processing speed and to improve the efficiency of processes. This paper proposes the robot-based remote laser welding system as a means of resolving the limited welding speed and accuracy of conventional laser welding systems.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.122-128
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• 2002

The laser welding in the automotive industries has been used widely for the butt joint of blank sheets rather than the lap joint of automotive body panels. But as a substitute far the spot welding of automotive body panels, the so called three dimensional laser welding will be important far the body panel engineers. Specially the laser welding of body panels with a smooth weld line is applied increasingly, for example, to the side panels. So far, some criteria of the laser weld quality was suggested by in-house regulations or national standards from experiences and/or rule of thumbs. In the manufacturing places, a go or no-go criterion is adopted because of the simplicity or a lack of rational criteria. It is true specially for the selection of the process parameters, which gives the basic causes for the good quality of laser welds. In this study, the effects of joint combination, gap and welding speed on the lap joint $CO_2$ laser welding of two mild steel sheets with different thicknesses are obtained through a $2{\times}3{\times}7$ factorial experiment. The results of the weld quality are statistically analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and compared between two characteristic zones, which are separated by the type of sectional shapes and the level of input energy per volume. The thickness combinations are 0.8mm/1.2mm, 1.2mm/0.8mm of mild steel sheets. The welding speed covers from the deep penetration to the partial penetration. The gap size has three levels of no-gap, 0.16m, and 0.26mm. The bead width, penetration depth and input energy per volume are measured and used as the weld quality criteria.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.49-59
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• 2008

Hastelloy C-276, corrosion resistant alloy at high temperature, is used in chemical plant and power generation industry. In this study, process parameter of laser welding for welding property in Hastelloy C-276 using a continuous wave Nd:YAG laser was studied. As the result of experiment, laser welding did not show segregation or crack at heat affected zone compared to conventional GTWA welding. The melting zone showed cell dendritic structure along with welding line. In addition, planer front solidification is occurred from welding structure, and it was progressed to cellular solidification. Optimal process parameter for butt welding was 1.2kW and 2.0 m/min for laser power and welding speed, respectively. While heat input, output density, tensile stress, and longitudinal strain was $441.98{\times}103$ J/cm2, $29.553{\times}103$ W/cm2, 768 MPa, and 0.689, respectively. Lap welding of the same material showed greater discrepancy in tensile property during 1 line and 2 line welding. For 1 line welding, tensile stress was about 320 MPa, and 2 line showed slightly larger tensile stress. However, strain was decreased by 20%. From this result, lap welding of the same material, Hastelloy C-276, with 2 line welding is considered to be more effective process than 1 line welding with consideration of mechanical property.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.222-228
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• 2002

A comparison of the welding performance of ship hull structural steels has been made. The weldability of steels especially designed for laser processing was compared to that of conventional hull and structural steels with plate thicknesses up to 12 mm. Autogenous laser beam welding was used to weld butt joints as well as skid and stake welded T-joints. The welds were assessed in accordance with the document "The Classification Societies′ Requirements for Approval of $CO_2$ Laser Welding Procedures". Small imperfections in the weld only grew slightly in root bend tests and they only had a minor influence on the fatigue properties of laser fillet welded joints. In Charpy impact tests, the 27 J transition temperature of the weld metal and HAZ ranged from below -60 to -5$0^{\circ}C$. The amount of martensite in the weld metal depended on the carbon equivalent of the steel with the highest amounts and highest hardness levels in conventional EH 36 (389 HV 5). Thermomechanically rolled steels contained less martensite and showed a correspondingly lower maximum hardness.