• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제33권2호
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• pp.175-183
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• 2001

Various welding processes are now available for end cap closure of nuclear fuel element such as TG(Tungsten Inert Gas) welding, magnetic resistance welding and laser welding. Even though the resistance and TIG welding processes are widely used for manufacturing commercial fuel elements, they can not be recommended for the remote seal welding of a fuel element at a hot cell facility due to the complexity of electrode alignment, difficulity in the replacement of parts in the remote manner and a large heat input for a thin sheath. Therefore, the Nd:YAG laser system using optical fiber transmission was selected for Zircaloy-4 end cap welding inside hot cell. The laser welding apparatus was developed using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser of 500 watt average power with optical fiber transmission. The weldability of laser welding was satisfactory with respect to the microstructures and mechanical properties comparing with TIG and resistance welding. The optimum operation processes of laser welding and the optical fiber transmission system for hot cell operation in a remote manner have been developed The effects of irradiation on the properties of the laser apparatus were also being studied.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제29권6호
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• pp.45-48
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• 2011

In this research, laser welding of automotive transmission components was investigated to replace electron beam welding which is normally conducted under vacuum condition. Fiber laser welding was applied to the automotive transmission components - hub clutch and annulus gear. In the component welding, the laser welding parameters were optimized to eliminate spatters and the end crater. By applying laser welding to the transmission parts, the process time could be reduced up to 70% compared with the current electron beam welding process.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.71-76
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• 2013

Gas nitriding is a surface hardening process where nitrogen is introduced into the surface of a ferrous alloy. During fusion welding of nitrided carbon steel, the nitride inside weld metal is dissolved and generates nitrogen gas, which causes porosities - blow holes and pits. In this study, several laser welding processes such as weaving welding, two-pass welding, dual beam welding and laser-arc hybrid welding were investigated to elongate the weld pool to enhance nitrogen gas evacuation. The surface pits were successfully eliminated with elongated weld pool. However blowholes inside the weld metal were effective reduced but not fully disappeared.

• 한국레이저가공학회지
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.9-13
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• 2011

The solar panel that consists of copper plate and copper tube was successfully welded by ultrasonic seam welding. However it was not only expensive the copper material but also ultrasonic welding has many problem such as high error rate, difficulty of dissimilar material welding, noise, etc. At this study, the laser welding of solar panel with aluminum plate instead of copper. The welding were carried out with the pulsed Nd:YAG laser and the weld bead geometry was measured with the variation of pulse energy. Consequently, there was no difference between the ultrasonic and the laser welding on the performance of heat transfer capacities. Also the formation of intermetalic compound such as CuAl2 was increased with the pulse energy.

• 대한용접접합학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한용접접합학회 2000년도 특별강연 및 춘계학술발표대회 개요집
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• pp.139-143
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• 2000

Laser beam weldability of Zircaloy-4 was investigated using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser of 550W average power. Mechanical properties and microstructure of laser butt welded Zircaloy-4 test specimens were examined. The influence of laser generated during laser welding was analyzed and optimum laser welding parameters were investigated.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.4-15
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• 2013

The laser/arc hybrid welding process is a new process combining the laser beam and the arc as welding heat source. The laser beam and arc influence and assist one another. By application of hybrid welding, synergistic effects are achievable, and disadvantage of the respective processes can be compensated. The laser-arc hybrid welding process has good potential to extend the field of applications of laser technology, and provide significant improvements in weld quality and process efficiency in manufacturing applications. This review analyses the recent advances in the fundamental understanding of hybrid welding processes using the works of the data base of Web of Science (SCI-Expanded) since the 2000 year. The research activity on the hybrid welding has been become more actively since 2006, especially in China, presenting the most research papers in the world. Since the hybrid welding process was adopted in manufacturing of the automobile in Europe in the early of 2000's, its adopting is widely expanded in the field of manufacturing of automobile, ship building, steel construction and the other various industry. The hybrid welding process is expected to advance toward higher productivity, higher precision, higher reliability through the mixing of high power and flexible fiber laser or disk laser and digitalized pulsed arc source.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.2-7
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• 2003

Laser welding application for car body manufacturing has many advantages in the stiffness and the lightness of vehicle, the productivity of assembly line, and the degree of freedom in design. This presentation will express the innovation of car body manufacturing including parameter optimization, process modeling, and system integration. In this application the investment for systems was cut down dramatically by real time switching over the laser path between two welding stations. Points of technical discussion are as follows; optimization of parameters such as laser power, robot speed and trajectory, compact and useful design of jig & fixture to assure welding quality for 3 sheet-layer zinc-coated steel, system integration between 4㎾ Nd:YAG laser device and the other systems, on-line real time welding quality monitoring system, perfect safety standards for high power laser, minimization of consumption costs such as arc lamp, protective glass for optic, etc. This application was successfully launched mass production line in 2001. The laser-welded line of side panel consists of 122 stitches totally. And the length is about 2.4m.

• 대한용접접합학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한용접접합학회 2002년도 Proceedings of the International Welding/Joining Conference-Korea
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• pp.169-175
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• 2002

World demand for natural gas has generated the need for many new land transmission pipelines to be installed in the next decade or so. Although mechanized gas metal arc welding is well developed, there are opportunities for cost savings by using alternative welding processes. Hybrid Nd:YAG laser - gas metal arc welding enables fibre optic delivery of the laser energy to a robotic welding head to be combined with the addition of extra energy and a consumable to produce good quality, deep penetration welds in a single pass. The present paper describes initial procedure development to optimize the laser and gas metal arc welding parameters for making joints in pipeline steel. Satisfactory joint quality was obtained and it is intended to develop the process to prototype field trials.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.113-120
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• 2005

Because of the turbulent markets and the increasing demand on product quality, the application of new technology to practice is increasingly important. In case of automotive industries, they take interest in laser welding to solve these problems because laser welding has many advantages such as good accessibility, welding quality, fast welding speed and so on. To apply this technology to welding of car body, the data of laser welding are collected through lots of the experiment according to the material, geometry and layer number of welding points. Based on the experiment results and the information of product, i.e. the car side panel, the clustering of stitches for laser welding was carried out and the optimal equipments are selected through the comparison between the requirements of welding and the potential of equipments. Using these results, laser welding cell for the car side panel are configured with the concept of the digital manufacturing, which ensures maximum planning security with visualization and simulation. Finally, the optimal laser welding cell is chosen by the evaluation of alternative cells with assessment criteria.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.58-64
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• 2004

The control of the weld bead shape is important in laser welding of the small parts. The effects of laser welding parameters on the weld bead shape in the pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding of STS 304L material were investigated. Shielding gas type, flow rate, pumping voltage, pulse frequency, pulse width, focal position and overlap distance were selected as laser welding parameters. Experiments were designed and conducted using the Taguchi method which was a statistical experimental method. The weld bead width, penetration, area and aspect ratio were measured and analysed as the weld bead shape properties and the welding parameters were optimized to maximize the weld aspect ratio. Weld aspect ratio were greatly affected by the pulse width, pumping voltage and pulse frequency, and somewhat by the overlap distance, and little by the shielding gas type, flow rate and focal position. A confirmation experiment were conducted using the optimized welding parameters.