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The effects of short pulse laser surface cleaning on porosity formation and reduction in laser welding of aluminium alloy for automotive component manufacture

A.W. AlShaer, L. Li, A. Mistry

Optics & Laser Technology. 2014;64:162-171.

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Abstract

Laser welding of aluminium alloys typically results in porosity in the fusion zones, leading to poor mechanical and corrosion performances. Mechanical and chemical cleaning of surfaces has been used previously to remove contaminants for weld joint preparations. However, these methods are slow, ineffective (e.g. due to hydrogen trapping) or lead to environmental hazards. This paper reports the effects of short pulsed laser surface cleaning on porosity formation and reduction in laser welding of AC-170PX (AA6014) aluminium sheets (coated with Ti/Zr and lubricated using a dry lubricant AlO70) with two types of joints: fillet edge and flange couch, using an AA4043 filler wire for automotive component assembly. The effect of laser cleaning on porosity reduction during laser welding using a filler wire has not been reported before. In this work, porosity and weld fusion zone geometry were examined prior to and after laser cleaning. The nanosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser cleaning was found to reduce porosity significantly in the weld fusion zones. For the fillet edge welds, porosity was reduced to less than 0.5% compared with 10-80% without laser cleaning. For flange couch welds, porosity was reduced to 0.23-0.8% with laser cleaning from 0.7% to 43% without laser cleaning. This has been found to be due to the elimination of contaminations and oxide layers that contribute to the porosity formation. The laser cleaning is based on thermal ablation. (C) Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keyword(s)

:Laser welding Porosity Aluminium alloy, car

Bibliographic metadata

Type of resource:
Content type:
Publication status:
Published
Publication type:
Publication form:
Collaborator(s):
Published date:
Language:
eng
Journal title:
ISSN:
Publisher:
Volume:
64
Start page:
162
End page:
171
Total:
9
Pagination:
162-171
Digital Object Identifier:
10.1016/j.optlastec.2014.05.010
Attached files embargo period:
Immediate release
Attached files release date:
30th January, 2015
Access state:
Active

Record metadata

Manchester eScholar ID:
uk-ac-man-scw:256881
Created by:
Li, Lin
Created:
30th January, 2015, 09:08:52
Last modified by:
Sokolovski, Vera
Last modified:
18th August, 2015, 13:03:09

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