Product Code: ICA10_1808

Deep Penetration Welding with High Power Laser Under Vacuum
Authors:
Yohei Abe, Joining and Welding Research Institute Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Masami Mizutani, Joining and Welding Research Institute Osaka University; Ibaraki
Yousuke Kawahito, Joining and Welding Research Institute Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Seiji Katayama, Joining and Welding Research Institute Osaka University; Ibaraki Japan
Presented at ICALEO 2010

Fiber and disk lasers of high power and high beam quality have been developed. These high-power lasers are used to produce deeply penetrated welds. It is furthermore expected that sound deeper-penetration welds can be produced under vacuum than those made normally in a gas shielding at 1 atm. Therefore, a vacuum chamber using a high beam quality laser was developed to produce ultra-deep penetration welds. In this study, under low vacuum produced by a rotary pump, high-power laser bead-on-plate welding was performed at various welding speeds. As a result, the welds under low vacuum were over twice deeper than those in a shielding gas flow under the atmospheric pressure. Type 304 stainless steel welds of more than 50 mm in penetration depth could be produced at a laser power of 10 kW, a speed of 0.1 m/min and a pressure of 0.1 kPa. The production of such deeply penetrated welds was interpreted by observing welding phenomena under low vacuum and gas flow through a high speed video camera