Product Code: PIC2008_601

Fibre Laser Welding of Ti6Al4V
Authors:
Jongkol Iammi, The University of Nottingham; Nottingham Great Britain
Janet Folkes, The University of Nottingham; Nottingham Great Britain
Guijun Bi, The University of Nottingham; Nottingham Great Britain
Ian Pashby, The University of Nottingham; Nottingham Great Britain
Presented at PICALO 2008

Ti6Al4V is widely used in the aerospace industry due to its lightweight and high strength properties. Joining titanium is of prime importance and while other welding techniques have been documented, the use of a fibre laser to weld this material has not been extensively investigated. In this paper, autogenously butt weld joints of thin sheet of Ti6Al4V were carried out using a 2 kW Ytterbium fibre laser. The effect of laser power, welding speed, shielding gas flow rate on the fusion zone and microstructure of Ti6Al4V have been analyzed. The weld microstructure of full penetration welds using optical microscopy is reported. The tensile test and hardness measurements for butt welds having complete penetration are also given. The results suggest that in order to achieve a full penetration, minimum fusion zone and acceptable weld profile with low distortion for thin sheet titanium, the combination of process parameters should be carefully considered.