Laser welding

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 Introduction
• LBW uses concentrated heat, allowing narrow and deep
welds at high welding rates.
• The focusability of the laser makes it useful for material
processing. Using a lens or curved mirror (spherical or
paraboloidal), the beam can be focused to a small spot
(0.1-1.0mm dia).
• Has high power density (1 MW/cm2) resulting in small
heat-affected zones and high heating and cooling rates.
• Spot size of the laser can vary between 0.2 mm and
13 mm.
• The high power density exerted by laser is capable of
rapid heating and even vaporization of most metals and
ceramics.

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• The focus normally positioned near the top surface or
below the surface.

Process Arrangement
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Relative power densities of different welding
processes

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Main characteristics of laser welding

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 Modes of Welding
1. Conduction limited welding
2. Key hole welding

Conduction limited welding

• Occurs when the power density at a given welding speed

is insufficient to cause boiling and hence a keyhole.
• The weld pool has strong stirring forces resulting from
the variation in surface tension with temperature.
• Most surface treatments in which melting occurs employ
an out-of-focus beam, which results in conduction-limited
weld beads.

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Conduction-limited welding

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Key hole welding

• In keyhole welding there is sufficient energy per unit

length to cause evaporation and hence a hole in the melt
pool.

• This hole is stabilized by the pressure from the vapor

being generated.

• In some high-powered plasma welds there is an apparent

hole, but this is mainly due to gas pressures from the
plasma or cathode jet rather than from evaporation.

• The keyhole behaves like an optical black body in that

the radiation enters the hole and is subject to multiple
reflections before being able to escape.
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Key hole welding

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• There are two principal areas of interest in the
mechanism of keyhole welding.
• The first is the flow structure since this directly affects the
wave formation on the weld pool and hence the final
frozen weld bead geometry. This geometry is a measure
of weld quality.
• The second is the mechanism for absorption within the
keyhole which may affect both this flow stability and
entrapped porosity.
• The absorption of the beam is by Fresnel absorption
(absorption during reflection from a surface) leading to
plasma re-radiation.

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Approximate shape and flow pattern in laser
welds

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• The plasma coming from the keyhole has two
components.

• One is the metallic plasma from the boiling material,

which fluctuates as directed by the shape of the keyhole,
but tends to be directed backwards at slow speeds and
more vertically at higher speeds.

• The other is the shroud gas plasma, which forms by

interaction with the metal plasma. It is almost stationary
relative to the laser beam but varies in intensity with the
laser power and welding speed.

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 Fluctuation of metallic plasma during CW
laser welding
Welding speed

The variation of the metal and shroud gas plasmas from a laser keyhole weld

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• This vapor will be sufficiently hot to be partially ionized,
forming a charged plasma.

• The flow of vapor out of the keyhole is fast, approaching

sonic speeds, and hence it makes a snarling noise.

• The boiling reaction is very vigorous and causes a spray

to form which emerges as particles and dust.

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Side-view illustration of the keyhole shape
and beam absorption

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Liquid motion in CW laser welding as marked
by the movement of a tungsten pellet

Flow in a “keyhole” weld mapped by a tungsten pellet

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Flow in a “keyhole” weld mapped by a tungsten pellet 17
 Operating Characteristics
The main process parameters are

• Beam properties; power, pulsed or continuous; spot size

and mode, polarization, wavelength.

• Transport properties: speed; focal position, joint

geometries, gap tolerance.

• Shroud gas properties: composition, shroud design,

pressure/velocity.

• Material properties : composition, surface condition.

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Process parameters

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 Effect of Continuous Power
• Problems in laser welding: Penetration and the inverse
drop out.

Boundaries for a good weld

Welding speed versus power for Ti–6Al–4V

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• The maximum welding speed for a given thickness rises
with an increase in power.
• The fall-off shown at the higher power level is due to the
poor mode structure given by most lasers when working
at their peak power.
• However for higher power levels up to 5kW, the fall-off
may be due to plasma effects also.
• For more power the operating window is larger.

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Welding speed versus power for a Laser
• Penetration is inversely proportional to the speed for a
given mode and focal spot size.
• The extent of the HAZ is a function of the welding speed.

Welding speed versus penetration for a fast axial flow CO2 laser
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 Effect of Pulsed Power
• The use of pulsed power introduces two more variables:
pulse repetition frequency and percentage overlap.

• The welding speed is decided by the spot size × pulse

repetition frequency ×(1 − overlap fraction).

• Penetration is a function of power and hence if the peak

power is raised by pulsing or modulating the beam, there
can be greater penetration for a given average power.

• The increased peak power also means better welding of

reflective material, since the keyhole is initiated more
quickly.

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• In pulsed operation less energy is deposited in the work
piece, leading to reduced distortion.

Variation of the penetration and depth of General operating regimes for

focus achievable with pulsing using a spot different pulsed processes using
size of 0.3mm on 304 stainless steel Nd:YAG laser
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 Spot Size and Mode
• Spot size determines the power density and hence the
penetration and ability to treat reflective materials.

• A low-order-mode structure (TEM00), can be more finely

focused than higher-order modes.

• The fiber laser has a mode structure that can be more

finely focused than the more traditional lasers.

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 Polarization

Influence of beam polarization on welding performance

• Slight variation in penetration is due to

polarization effects.
• The resulting weld fusion zones are also
wider for the case of s-polarization
(perpendicular to the plane of incidence)
since the main absorption would be at the
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sides.
 Wavelength
• Due to the high absorptivity within the “keyhole” there is
little operational difference when welding with long or
short wavelengths.

• When welding with a conduction limited weld, the lower

reflectivity with the shorter wavelengths gives a distinct
advantage.

• For shorter wavelengths there will be less absorption

and hence cooler and less absorbing plasma.

• This gives a significant advantage to shorter-wavelength

lasers for welding and other plasma-generating
processes.
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 Speed
• The pool flow pattern and size changes with the change
in speed.
• At slow speeds the pool is large and wide and may result
in dropout.
• At higher speeds there is strong flow towards the centre
of the weld forming an undercut at the sides of the weld.
• At intermediate region in which there is a partial
undercutting and central string.

Range of weld shapes varying usually with speed: (a) normal/good,

(b) undercut, (c) humping (longitudinal section), and (d) dropout
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Map of weld bead profiles as functions of
welding speed and laser power

0.13-mm thick stainless steel 0.12 and 0.25 mm thick mild steel

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 Focal Position
• The focal point should be located within the workpiece to
a depth of around 1mm for maximum penetration.
• The main parameters are the depth of focus and the
minimum spot size.

Beam diameter versus distance from the focus

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Effect of focal position on weld penetration for 1018 steel
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 Joint Geometries
• Laser beams causing keyhole-type welds prefer a joint
which helps the absorption and hence the formation of
the keyhole.

• High-intensity welding processes are not sensitive to

different thicknesses of the pieces to be joined.

• In the “T” weld geometry, the keyhole penetrates at an

angle into the workpiece so that it tends to turn upwards
to allow full penetration around the base of the T.

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 Various welding joint arrangements:
(a) butt joint, (b) fillet or lap joint, (c) spot or lap weld,
(d) spike or spot weld, (e) flange joint, (f) edge joint, (g) T-joint, (h) flare weld,
(i) corner, and (j )kissing or flare weld 33
 Effect of Gap
• In butt joints the gap must be small enough so that the
beam cannot pass straight through the joint. (The gap
should be smaller than half the beam diameter)

• A small gap is beneficial since it results in a rise in the

level of the weld.

• This is due to the stresses in the cooling weldment

drawing the work pieces together and so squashing the
melt pool.

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 Shroud Composition
• The gas shroud may sometimes block or distort the
beam and thus prevent the absorption of the beam into
the workpiece.
• The plasma formed above the keyhole with the shroud
gas will be absorbing to an extent determined by the
temperature and the ionization potential of the gases
involved.
• In welding with CO2 lasers, helium is used since it has
less plasma-blocking effect due to ionization potential in
spite of its price.

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 Variation in penetration with shroud gas Penetration versus speed for helium
composition and laser power for 10.6 μm and argon shroud gases
radiation

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 Shroud Design
• The shroud design must give total coverage of the
reactive hot region without having flow rates which may
cause waves on the weld pool.

• A side jet is often added to blow the plasma away.

• The side jet can also be used to feed powder filler into
the weld.

• If the fine 450 jet is correctly located, it will blow the

plasma back into the keyhole and hence enhance the
absorption.

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The design of a plasma disruption jet with trailing shroud
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 Effect of Gas Pressure

• The nozzle pressure affects the gas flow rate and hence
the ability of the gas to either blow the plasma away or
correctly protect the weld.
• There is a maximum rate above which the weld pool flow
may be affected causing a poor bead.
• Underwater laser welding can be done up to depth of
500m.The penetration depth is reduced considerably by
the increased pressure of about 50% .

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 Effect of material properties
• The main material problems with laser welding are crack
sensitivity, porosity, HAZ embrittlement and poor
absorption of the radiation.

• Crack sensitivity refers to centreline cracking, hot

cracking or liquation cracking. It is due to the shrinkage
stress building up before the weld has fully solidified.

• Cracking can be reduced or eliminated by using a high

pulse rate, adding a filler or using preheat.

• Porosity often results when welding material subject to

vaporization, such as brass, zinc-coated steel, Al/Li
alloys or magnesium alloys.

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• Porosity may also be caused by a chemical reaction in
the melt pool or melting with inadequate shrouding of
metals.
• It may also be present in metals having a high dissolved
gas content such as in some aluminium alloys.

Laser welding characteristics for different alloy systems

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Laser weldability of dissimilar metal combinations

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 Process Variations

Arc-augmented Laser Welding

• The arc from a tungsten–inert gas (TIG) torch mounted
close to the laser beam interaction point will
automatically lock onto the laser-generated hot spot.
• The temperature had to be around 3000C above the
surrounding temperature for this to happen.
• The effect is either to stabilize an arc which is unstable
due to its traverse speed or to reduce the resistance of
an arc which is stable.
• The process allows a doubling of the welding speed for a
modest increase in the capital cost.

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Arc-augmented Laser Welding

The coupling of an arc and a laser beam results in

(a) the reduced resistance of the arc
(b) the stabilization of the arc for high-speed welding

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 Twin-beam Laser Welding
• If two laser beams are used simultaneously, then there is
a possibility of controlling the weld pool geometry and
hence the weld bead shape.

• The weld is wider and shallower but may have uses in

controlling dropout when welding aluminium.

• Improved coupling for the welding of high-reflectivity

materials, such as aluminium and copper.

• Since more energy is produced, greater penetration is

obtained and if one beam is less focused, then the
weldment will be wider.
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 Welding of Plastics

Conduction Welding of Plastics

• This method works only on very thin plastic films due to

the poor thermal conductivity of plastics.
• 0.1mm thick polyethylene film can be seam-welded at
100 m/min with a 900W CO2 laser.
• Polyethylene sheets for making plastic bags can be cut
and welded simultaneously with a CO2 laser with heating
for welding on one side and cutting on the other side.
• This can be achieved by arranging a coma focus by
tilting the lens or using a diffractive optic element.

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 Transmission Welding of Plastics

• The top layer of plastic is transparent to the radiation and

the lower layer is absorbing.
• Such welds usually have a transparent top layer and a
black plastic lower layer that is loaded with carbon black
as an absorber.
• In ‘Clearweld’ process two pieces of plastic both
transparent to the laser radiation can be lap-welded by
applying a layer of absorbing material at the interface
between them.
• The absorbing layer is of a material that absorbs over a
narrow absorption band near the laser wavelength and
has good solubility in the host material.
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The transmission welding process for transparent plastics using the Clearweld
technique 48
• Absorber is applied as a dilute solution by inkjet printing,
needle deposition, spraying or as a film.
• The absorbing molecules are held in a solvent solution.
• When laser is applied onto the sandwich, the absorbing
layer heats up sufficiently to melt both interfaces,
creating a weld and HAZ of around 0.1mm thickness.
• The extent of the heating is determined by the laser
power, traverse speed, spot size and the absorptivity of
the layer.
• At least 21% absorption is necessary for success.
• A two-wavelength diode laser operating at 808 and
940 nm can be used to simultaneously weld a triple-layer
assembly, creating welds where the appropriate
absorber for that wavelength has been deposited .
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A three-layer stack being welded using two different absorbers and a laser
beam having two wavelengths

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 Globo welding of plastics

• The clamping for laser welding can be done by using a

transparent plastic or glass plate to press on the stack or
a transmissive ball through which the laser passes and is
focused.
• The ball rolls along the required seam. This technique is
known as Globo welding.
• The weld also can be made in a quasi-simultaneous
manner by scanning in the required pattern.

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The principles of the Globo technique for welding plastics

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 Theory,
Mathematical Modeling and Simulation

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Physical interactions during laser material
processing

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 Modeling
Modeling has three levels:

• Semi-quantitative understanding of the process

mechanisms for the design of experiments and display of
results – dimensional analysis, order of magnitude
calculations.

• Parametric understanding for control purposes –

empirical and statistical charts, analytical models.

• Detailed understanding to analyze the precise process

mechanisms for the purpose of prediction, process
improvement and the pursuit of knowledge – analytical
and numerical models.
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 Mathematical model
• It simply predicts future conditions on the basis of the
present understanding of the phenomena.
• The accuracy and precision of a model depends on
whether all the appropriate parameters has been
included.
• Precision will depend on the level of approximation
during the calculation.

Simple concept of a mathematical model

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 Development of a mathematical model
The following points should be considered in developing
a mathematical model.

• The objective of modeling.

• The modeling parameter like transport process for heat,

mass or momentum flow or a combination of all three.

• Understanding of the physical process like choice of rate

process, boundary conditions/initial conditions,
independent/dependent variables.

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• Relationships to describe the process quantitatively and
the simplifications regarding the boundary conditions.

• Identification of solution techniques that can be used like

using an already-available solution (exact), approximate
analytical solution in limiting cases (approximation) or
numerical methods.

• The method of checking the solution like looking at

limiting cases, examining the boundary conditions,
checking against measured values.

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 Fourier’s Second Law
• All models in unsteady-state heat transfer have to be solved using
Fourier’s second law.
• Consider the differential element as shown in figure. The heat
balance on the element is:
Heat in − Heat out = Heat accumulated + Heat generated

Heat flow through a differential element. Subscripts represent north (N), south
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(S),east (E), west (W), up (U) and down (D)
• The difference between the heat in and the heat out depends
upon the different rates of conduction and convection.
• Conduction: Consider only the x direction (the other directions
being analogous): heat flow by conduction in the x direction is
given by:

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i.e., a positive heat loss for a negative thermal gradient, which in
vector notation is written as

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This is the basic equation to be solved.

T –Temperature
k-Thermal conductivity
CP –Heat capacity at constant pressure
U -Translational speed of the substrate with respect to the laser beam
H- Heat generated per unit volume
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 One-dimensional Heat Flow
• If the heat flows in only one direction and there is no
convection or heat generation, the basic equation
becomes (from Fourier’s second law)

If it is assumed that there is a constant extended surface

heat input and constant thermal properties, with no
radiant heat loss or melting, then the boundary conditions
are as follows.

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64
Since the error function, erf(u), is not freely available and
difficult to manipulate algebraically, it can be substituted
by a polynomial with an accuracy of one part in 2.5 × 10-5,
which is usually sufficient. The polynomial is

The error function erf(x) is defined as

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This leads to the differential of the error function

If the power is turned off, then the material will cool for t > t1
according to the relationship

z= depth, Fo=Absorbed power density ,α=thermal diffusivity

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• This model applies to conduction process when the flow
is in one direction, when the heat source is large
compared with the depth considered.
• This calculation has not allowed any variation or concept
of beam size or mode structure, speed is only simulated
by time and no allowance is made for workpiece
thickness.

Heating and cooling times as a function of power for a melt depth of 0.025mm
in nickel

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Brienan and Kear developed graphs of the cooling rate,
thermal gradient and solidification rates expected with
this form of heating.

Melt depth history for pure nickel with 500,000W/cm2 absorbed power,
initial melt depth 1.2mm and maximum temperature 2,038°C
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 Transient behavior of the Transient behavior of the cooling
temperature gradient at the melt front rate.
for pure nickel; initial depth 0.025mm
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Analytical Models for a Stationary Point
Source

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 The Instantaneous Point Source
• The differential equation for the conduction of heat in a
stationary medium, assuming no convection or radiation,
is

This is satisfied for the case of an instantaneous point

source of energy QρC by

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 As t → 0, this expression tends to zero at all points except
(x′, y′, z′), where it becomes infinite. Also, the total quantity
of heat in the infinite region is

Thus the solution of Equation can be interpreted as the

temperature in an infinite solid due to a quantity of heat QρC
instantaneously generated at t = 0 at the point (x′, y′, z′). Q is
the temperature to which a unit volume of the material would
be raised by the instantaneous point source.
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 Continuous Point Source
• Since heat is not a vector quantity, the effects from
different heat sources can be added.

• If heat is liberated at the rate of φ(t)ρC per unit time from

t = 0 to t = t′ at the point (x′, y′, z′), the temperature at (x,
y, z) at time t is found by the Equation

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As t → ∞ this reduces to T = q/4παr, a steady temperature
distribution in which a constant supply of heat is
continually introduced at (x′, y′, z′) and spreads outwards
into an infinite solid.

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Analytical Models for a Moving Point
Source

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• By integrating the point source solution over time and
moving it by making x = (x0 + ѵt),the equation for moving
point source can be formed.

• The solution for the moving point source assumes a

semi-infinite workpiece , no radiant loss, no melting and
constant thermal properties over the temperature range
concerned.

• The solution is

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From this, the rate of cooling for the centreline surface
spot (y = 0, x > 0, z = 0) can be derived as

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 Applications of Laser Welding
• Hermetically sealing electronic capsules, which is
possible due to the low HAZ.
• End plate on a piston assembly for a car nearer to a
nylon washer.
• Heart pacemaker
• Tailored blanks
• Bimetallic saw blades.
• Cooker tops, made of two stamped sheets.
• Fire-extinguisher cylinders.
• Repair of nuclear boiler tubes from inside.

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• Laser soldering in the electronics industry particularly
with the development of diffractive optic elements for
multiple soldered points in a single shot.
• Multiple welds in TV tubes.
• Strip welding in continuous mills.
• Three-dimensional welding of car and aircraft
components.
• Fabrics made with some content of thermoplastic fiber
can be welded instead of stitched.

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• Numerous automobile applications.

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• Welding of polymers and plastics which include welding
spectacles, diving suits, outdoor footwear, tents,
parachutes and soon carpets.

• Underwater laser welding used by deep sea divers

since it is difficult to maintain an electric arc or flames at
high pressures.

• Welding structural panels consisting of a top and a

bottom plate joined by some form of welded corrugation.

• In shipbuilding where laser can be used to weld thick

plate with less distortion and HAZ.

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