Effect of welding parameters and the heat input on weld bead profile of laser welded T-

joint in structural steel

Anna Unt, and Antti Salminen

Citation: Journal of Laser Applications 27, S29002 (2015); doi: 10.2351/1.4906378

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.2351/1.4906378
View Table of Contents: http://lia.scitation.org/toc/jla/27/S2
Published by the Laser Institute of America

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JOURNAL OF LASER APPLICATIONS VOLUME 27, NUMBER S2 FEBRUARY 2015

Effect of welding parameters and the heat input on weld bead profile of laser
welded T-joint in structural steel
Anna Unt
Laboratory of Laser Materials Processing, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851
Lappeenranta, Finland
Antti Salminen
Laboratory of Laser Materials Processing, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851
Lappeenranta, Finland and Machine Technology Centre Turku Ltd., Lemmink€ aisenkatu 28, FI-20520 Turku,
Finland
(Received 5 January 2015; accepted for publication 6 January 2015; published 26 February 2015)
The high power fiber laser has become one of the most efficient energy sources for deep penetration
welding processes used in heavy manufacturing and marine industries. Combinations of cost-
efficient, easily automatable process together with fairly mobile and flexible welding equipment have
raised high expectations for improved quality and economic feasibility. In this study, the fillet weld-
ing of a low alloyed structural steel was studied using a 10 kW fiber laser. Plates of 8 mm thick AH36
were welded as a T-joint configuration in flat (1F) and horizontal (2F) positions using either an autog-
enous laser welding or a hybrid laser arc welding process. The effect of heat input on the weld bead
geometry was investigated using one variable at a time approach. The impact of single process
parameter such as laser power of 4.5–6 kW, welding speed of 0.5–2.5 m/min, beam inclination angle
of 6 –15 , focal point position of 2 to þ2 mm, and welding positions of 1F and 2F were studied.
All welds were visually evaluated for weld imperfections described in EN ISO 13919-1 standard.
Penetration depth, geometries of the fusion and heat affected zones, and hardness profiles were meas-
ured. Produced joints have a high depth to width ratio and a small heat affected zone; full penetration
welds with acceptable weld quality on both sides of the joint were produced. The parameter configu-
rations for optimizing the welding processes are proposed. V C 2015 Laser Institute of America.

[http://dx.doi.org/10.2351/1.4906378]

Key words: laser beam welding, low alloyed steel, T-joint, weld penetration

I. INTRODUCTION in manufacturing of steel structures. This, together with effi-

ciency of laser equipment in case of modern solid state
Laser and hybrid laser arc welding (HLAW) are high lasers, leads to much higher overall efficiency of the process
power density processes, making full penetration welds pos- from wall plug to welding process. The effect of the diameter
sible in single run at high welding speed and low heat of the focused beam on welding speed can be noticed very
input.1,2 Up to date, most of the research in laser welding has clearly from Fig. 2.
mainly been concentrated either on butt joint or lap joint Hybrid welding has additional parameters that influence
configurations. However, the welding of fillet joint is of great the process behavior and the properties of the resulting weld.
importance as well, since most of the welded products hav- The capability of fiber laser-MIG in welding of fillet welds
ing three-dimensional shape require welding of fillet joints. in 4 mm structural steel has been studied with attention to
Welding of fillets in medium thickness steel (4–12 mm) most influential parameters affecting the weld bead profile.6
with HLAW has been studied using Nd:YAG laser-MAG These parameters are laser power, welding speed, focal point
hybrid technology; welds with characteristics fulfilling ship- position (ffp), air gap, and beam inclination angle.4,6,7 In
yard specifications were produced.1,3 In the previous studies, addition, focal point position has been shown to have signifi-
it has been noticed, e.g., that welding of a fillet joint is easy cant effect on the penetration depth and geometry of the
due the fact that weld is bending according to the joint, i.e., weld in butt joint and bead on plate configurations8 and it
the effect of the angle of incidence is less severe than in case should be studied in T-joint arrangement as well. In hybrid
of butt joint. This is demonstrated in Fig. 1. The phenomena welding, typically, the laser process is creating the deep and
are stronger in case of Nd:YAG laser which has significantly narrow weld, while arc process aids at the bead geometry
worse beam quality than the CO2 laser. formation and brings additional heat to the joint.1,9,10
Beam quality and output power level of fiber lasers are In traditional arc welding processes, the size of the exter-
superior to those of Nd:YAG lasers leading in either deeper nal fillet is considered to be the most important dimension of
penetration or higher speed in practical welding applications. the joint. The design codes are based on the dimensions and
The flexibility of beam delivery by fiber allows accessing height of the fillet. In arc welding processes, less than half of
difficult joint locations and utilizing novel design solutions the plate thickness is penetrated and taken in account in

1938-1387/2015/27(S2)/S29002/7/$28.00 S29002-1 C 2015 Laser Institute of America

V
S29002-2 J. Laser Appl., Vol. 27, No. S2, February 2015 A. Unt and A. Salminen

FIG. 3. Illustration of weld flaw caused by misalignment of laser beam in

case hybrid welding with CO2 laser in case of (a) air gap of 0.5 mm,
FIG. 1. Welds welded with the highest welding speed to achieve full pene- vw ¼ 1.3 m/min, (b) air gap of 0.5 mm, vw ¼ 1.1 m/min, (c) air gap of
tration (a) CO2 laser weld, PL ¼ 5 kW, vw ¼ 0.9 m/min. (b) Nd:YAG laser 0.5 mm, vw ¼ 1.5 m/min. PL ¼ 5 kW, material S355K2G3 steel with web
weld, PL ¼ 3 kW, vw ¼ 0.3 m/min. S355K2G3 steel with web thickness of thickness of 6 mm (Ref. 4).
6 mm (Ref. 4).
(PA) is the most suitable position for evaluating the capabil-
ity of the fiber laser based system due to ease of accessibility.
further evaluation of the joint performance. Thus, convex top
The horizontal position 2F (PB) is in practice common for
profile of the bead and high fillet are preferable, because
most industrial applications. Figure 4 shows a schematic rep-
large weld throat means better structural integrity and is ad-
resentation of the welding positions and the cross section of
vantageous for fatigue life. This regulation cannot directly
be transferred to the welds produced with laser based proc- fillet weld produced by either laser welding or HLAW.
esses, as joints are formed along the interface of the flange Effective throat (teff) is the shortest distance between the
and the web throughout the whole thickness. Height of the top bead and the end of fusion zone measured along the
external fillet is of secondary importance, as weld has usu- weld. Penetration depth (dpen) shows the range of the fusion
ally full penetration with only fraction of the joint situating and is measured from the edge of the web to the end of the
above the interface of the plates forming a fillet. In laser and joint. Width of the weld bead (ww) is measured across the
HLAW, the concave shape of the top bead is beneficial, as joint from one toe of the weld to the other and depth of
less added filler material means smaller heat distortions and the weld (wd) is measured from the top surface to the end of
smooth transition from weld bead to base material. In addi- the weld.
tion, the defects such as undercut are also less likely to
appear. II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The hybrid welding joint preparation tolerances are less
severe compared to requirements of autogenous laser weld- A. Materials
ing. However, the geometrical parameters of the process, The materials used for this study were 8 mm thick ship-
such as beam incidence location, are still critical in case of
building steel AH36 as a base material and G3Si1 as a filler
T-fillet joint. Figure 3 shows an example of a case of mis-
wire. The workpieces were laser cut to dimensions of
aligned beam.
350 mm (length)  100 mm (width) and grid blasted prior to
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of
being tack welded in inverted T-position. The chemical com-
heat input and process parameters on the weld geometry and
position of the steel and the filler wire are shown in Table I.
penetration. Welding position, laser power, welding speed,
focal point position, and beam inclination angle, being the
most notable variables affecting the shape of the weld bead, B. Laser equipment
were systematically studied. The flat welding position 1F
A continuous wave fiber laser YLR 10000 emitting
wavelength of 1070 nm and having 10 kW maximum power
output was used in this study. Focal point diameter of the
laser beam was 0.56 mm, resulting from 300 mm focusing
mirror, 125 mm collimation mirror, and ø 200 lm process
fiber. Kugler LK190 mirror optic laser welding head was
used in both test setups. The length of the weld was 165 mm.
The main process variables are shown in Table II.

FIG. 2. Joining speeds achieved as a function of laser power for various op-
tical setups and spot diameters used. The lasers used are fiber and disk lasers FIG. 4. Schematic illustration of laser/HLAW welded fillet joint (left) and
(Ref. 5). welding positions studied (right).
J. Laser Appl., Vol. 27, No. S2, February 2015 A. Unt and A. Salminen S29002-3

TABLE I. Chemical composition of the materials.

Material C Si Mn P S

AH36 0.18 0.03 0.7 0.035 0.035

G3Si1 0.1 0.9 1.5

Autogenous laser welding tests were carried out without

shielding gas; in HLAW, Ar þ 5 CO2 with flow rate 20 l/min,
delivered through the MAG welding torch, was used. In
HLAW experiments, the Kugler welding head was combined
with a Binzel MAG torch. Kemppi ProMig 530 arc power
supply with only pulsed arc setting was used. The synergy
setting was constantly on; thus, arc current and voltage were
dependent on the welding speed by the feeding speed of the
filler wire. The arc was the leading process. Previous experi-
ments have shown that such arrangement generally results in
higher quality welds, namely, smoother bead top profile and
less root porosity in the joint. The experimental setups are
shown in Fig. 5.

C. Test methods
After welding, a quality of weld beads was visually eval-
uated to detect common weld imperfections described in EN
ISO 13919-1 standard. Special attention was paid to imper-
fections like undercuts, excessive penetration, and lack of
penetration due to their effect on the fatigue properties of the
weld, where they act as a notch for crack initiation.
FIG. 5. Experimental setups.
Welds having a good bead quality were cut transverse to
the welding direction, polished according to standard proce-
dures, and etched with solution of 5% HNO3 þ C2H5OH to is directly related to the laser (and, if used, arc) power and
obtain the geometry of the weld. Subsequently, macrographs the welding speed. Heat input for the laser welding was cal-
were prepared and critical measurements mentioned in Fig. 1 culated according to the following equation:
were taken. Macrohardness was measured along the fusion
Qlaser ¼ PL =vt ; (1)
lines using HV 5 with 0.4 mm intercept between the
indentations. where Qlaser is the heat input of laser (kJ/mm), PL is the laser
output power (kW), and vt is the travel speed (mm/s). Heat
1. Heat input
input of the HLAW is taking into account the additional
Line energy was used as a common denominator for a energy delivered by arc and is calculated by the following
comparison process of the welding positions 1F and 2F. Heat equation:
input defines the geometry of the joint and can be controlled
by a modification of the welding parameters. The heat input QT ¼ Qarc þ Qlaser ¼ ðU  I  60Þ=vt þ ðPL  60Þ=vt (2)

TABLE II. Welding parameters. where Qlaser is the heat input of laser welding (kJ/mm), PL is
the laser output power (kW), vt is the travel speed (m/min),
Material AH36 QT is the heat input of HLAW (kJ/mm), Qarc is the heat input
Plate thickness (mm) 8 mm of arc welding (kJ/mm), U is the voltage of arc (V), and I is
Welding speed (m/min) 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0, 2.25, 2.5 the current of arc (A).
Laser power (kW) 4.5, 5.56, 6, 8, 8.4, 9, 9.5 Laser power used in these experiments was varied
Focus position (mm) þ2, 0, 2 between 4.5 and 6 kW and welding speed was varied
Beam angle from flange ( ) 6, 10, 15 between 0.5 and 2.5 m/min.
Arc-laser process distance (mm) 3
MAG torch tilt angle ( ) 45 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
MAG torch travel angle ( ) 58
Filler wire feed rate (m/min) Welding speed  5.2 A. The effect of the focal point position
Filler wire stick out (mm) 15
Filler wire diameter (mm) 1.0
Focal point position influences significantly the stability
Air gap in HLAW 0.5 of the welding process, penetration, and quality of the weld.
Three focal point positions were tested for studying the
S29002-4 J. Laser Appl., Vol. 27, No. S2, February 2015 A. Unt and A. Salminen

energy was available to weld to form when focusing was

below the workpiece surface.
The difference in penetration depth, slightly exceeding
6 mm in both fpp’s tested, is minor. However, the influence
FIG. 6. Cross sections of laser welds produced with focal point positions on the top bead geometry is obvious: fpp above the base ma-
above, on top, and below the joint. PL ¼ 4.56 kW, vw ¼ 1 m/min. terial results in narrow weld having convex face bead profile,
while fpp inside of the joint creates wider weld with concave
effects on penetration depth and geometry of the top of the face bead profile. As mentioned earlier, the filler wire feed-
weld bead. The tests were made in flat (1F) welding position. ing rate was the same for both welds, and yet the weld pro-
Figure 6 shows the results of three focal point positions duced with smaller heat input has larger melt area, and the
tested in autogenous laser welding experiments. The heat amount of the base material melted during the welding pro-
input was 270 J/mm for all three welds. Beam inclination cess is more than it was when the beam was focused above
angle was 6 ; the beam propagation and position of the focal the joint.
point are illustrated on the macrographs.
Figure 6 shows that the penetration is deepest when the B. The effect of the welding position
focal point is below the surface. The area of the melt and
Table III presents the welds produced with autogenous
width of HAZ are similar in all three positions, but the loca-
laser welding using identical process parameters in positions
tion of the weld with respect to web is shifted inward of the
1F and 2F.
joint along with focusing. Comparing the three focal point
From figures presented in Table III, it can clearly be
positions tested, it can be seen that focusing the beam on top
seen that the welding position affects the weld geometry and
of the joint or inside of the material results in sinking of the
depth of the penetration. The fusion zone of the welds pro-
weld and formation of the undercut. The width of the weld
duced in horizontal position is slightly wider and also the
fusion zones is less than 2 mm; in all cases, the weld has
penetration is inferior to welds made in flat position.
crossed the joint plane and missed the root of the joint,
As expected, the penetration depth and width of the bead
restricting the length of the effective throat. Full penetration
was not achieved even in case of fpp of 2 mm, when the lessen with increase of the welding speed in both studied
melt was pushed through the joint, appearing on the root side positions. At welding speed of 1.25 m/min, the welds have
(see Fig. 6 right). However, used heat input was sufficient similar geometry of fusion and heat affected zone, but as
for producing weld throughout the thickness at fpp of 2, in welding speed is increased, the differences occur. Weld
case of correct beam positioning (at smaller inclination angle made in flat position at 1.75 m/min has full penetration with
or higher along the web). Narrow weld width and the beam narrow fusion zone and HAZ, while weld made in 2F has
position with respect to the joint (aiming exactly at the point partial penetration, 6.2 mm. In the horizontal position, the
between web and flange) were limiting the fusion at the root. root of the weld is wider, which, generally, is beneficial from
Figure 7 shows hybrid welds produced with focal point the gap bridging point of view (the beam is more likely to hit
positions above and below the material. the joint plane instead of penetrating the flange). The loss of
These welds were made under same parameters with penetration depth is more noticeable in horizontal position,
exception of the arc power. Although the welding speed and especially at higher welding speeds. This may be caused by
rate of the filler wire feeding were set to same values, the effect of gravity on the movement of the molten steel,
0.8 kW difference in arc power occurred. The corresponding
heat inputs were 462 J/mm (fpp of 2 mm) and 414 J/mm TABLE III. The effect of the welding position on the weld profile at differ-
ent welding speeds. Laser welding, PL ¼ 6 kW, fpp ¼ 2 mm.
(fpp of 2). Regardless of the smaller arc power that weld
produced with fpp of 2 mm received, the trend observed Welding speed Flat (1F) Horizontal (2F)
earlier in autogenous laser welding was noticed. fpp inside
of the material lets energy to be absorbed in the melt pool 1.25 m/min
more efficiently. This can be seen from the geometry and the
surface area difference of resulting joints. The weld obtained
with fpp of þ2 mm had greater arc energy input than fpp of
2 mm; however, the melt areas of the welds, 14.2 mm2 (fpp
1.75 m/min
of þ2 mm) and 17.3 mm2 (fpp of 2 mm) show that more

2.25 m/min

FIG. 7. Cross sections of HLAW welds, fpp of þ2 (left) and fpp of 2 mm

(right). vw ¼ 1 m/min, vwire ¼ 5.2 m/min, PL ¼ 4.5 kW, PArc ¼ 3.15 kW (left)
and 2.34 kW (right).
J. Laser Appl., Vol. 27, No. S2, February 2015 A. Unt and A. Salminen S29002-5

because in the horizontal position the melt pool is supported

by the flange, while in the flat position the hydrostatic pres-
sure forces the melt to flow rapidly downward. Because of
this, an air gap between the plates would increase the pene-
tration depth in flat position.

C. The effect of the inclination angle of the beam

The smallest possible beam inclination angle that was
accessible by the equipment used, 6 from the flange, was
taken as a starting point. The beam was positioned 0.5 mm
above from the joint on the web plate and focused 2 mm
below the material top surface in all cases. Sound welds with
complete fusion on the root side were produced using 6 kW
laser power at welding speeds up to 1.25 m/min, subse-
quently the beam angle was increased to 10 and 15 to FIG. 9. The weld dimensions under same heat input in 1F and 2F welding
positions. fpp ¼ 2 mm and beam angle of 6 .
observe whether the penetration is maintainable at higher
angles and observe the direction of weld propagation. All
welds displayed in Fig. 8 are made in horizontal welding Figure 9(a) shows that the width of the weld bead
position (2F) with heat input 288 J/mm. (ww) is increasing as heat input increases. The welds
From Fig. 8, it can be seen that the welds are aligned in made in 1F at high welding speeds were slightly wider
the direction of the beam. Unlike welds made with CO2 and than welds made in 2F with corresponding heat input.
Nd:YAG lasers,4 the welds produced are not bending along This difference was diminished when heat input is
the joint plane. The straight and narrow needlelike fusion greater than 350 J/mm.
zone, distinctive to fiber laser welds, was observed. The depth of the weld (dw), measured from top of
In the case of 6 angle, full penetration was obtained as the bead to end of the fusion zone regardless whether the
adequate amount of melt was pushed through on the root weld is hitting the seam or not, was similar in range of
side, forming a sound joint. This phenomenon did not occur 300–500 J/mm [Fig. 9(b)]. When heat input was less, the
in larger beam angles, since the energy was directed linearly welds made in 2F position were deeper. The difference is
and the needle-like weld was formed in the base plate. High explained by different top bead profile, which was rather
density of the beam creates narrow weld, fusion zone does straight or slightly concave in 2F, but always concave in all
not reach the root region, and under-filling occurs when the of the welds produced in 1F position. This becomes clearer
beam is missing the joint plane. The area of the fusion zone from Fig. 9(c) that the dimensions of effective throat of
gradually decreased by change of the beam inclination angles welds produced in 2F were longer than those made in 1F.
from 10 to 15 , while width of HAZ remained the same. The gravity, pulling the melt during welding and solidifica-
Weld made with the 10 angle had effective throat of tion, forms concave top bead in 1F position, sometimes caus-
6.8 mm, at 15 angle of 4.3 mm. The penetration depth is also ing undercut and sagging of the weld, especially at higher
decreasing with increasing beam angles; perhaps the reason heat inputs when the melt pool is larger. In 2F position, the
is that the beam can be absorbed more efficiently in the melt movement of melt was more restricted as gravity acts from
front when its inclination angle is adjacent to the joint. Small different direction. The melt movement is slower; heat is dis-
beam inclination angle to the flange is preferable for increas- sipated into base material, resulting in wider HAZ and higher
ing penetration at any given power and speed combination; top bead.
however, practical applications may have limitations set by Figure 9(d) shows how much of the web plate was
dimensions of equipment and restricted accessibility. melted, e.g., the reach of penetration along the web–flange
interface. Again, it must be noted that not in all of the cases
D. Effect of the heat input on weld geometry the weld was aligned along the seam, sometimes crossing it
and hitting only the flange. Full penetration or 8 mm pene-
1. Laser welding tration is reachable with heat input above 260 J/mm in both
Figure 9 shows the effect of heat input on the dimen- welding positions. However, the range for acceptable qual-
sions of the laser welds made in flat (1F) and horizontal (2F) ity is differing, as 1F position results in undercut when heat
positions. input exceeds 350 J/mm. Figure 10 displays two welds
made in different welding positions with same heat input,
360 J/mm, using 6 kW laser power and 1 m/min welding
speed.
The energy distribution is different in the welds shown
in Fig. 10. The HAZ of the weld produced in 1F position is
narrow and the fusion at the root of the weld is thorough,
FIG. 8. The effect of the beam incline angle on the weld propagation. the melt has flown through the seam and solidified on the
PL ¼ 6 kW, fpp ¼ 2 mm, and vw ¼ 1.25 m/min. back of the joint. Weld produced in 2F position, pictured
S29002-6 J. Laser Appl., Vol. 27, No. S2, February 2015 A. Unt and A. Salminen

FIG. 10. The weld geometry in 1F (left) and 2F (right) welding positions at
heat input 360 J/mm. fpp ¼ 2 mm and beam angle of 6 . FIG. 12. The change in weld geometry in respect to heat input. PL ¼ 6 kW,
fpp ¼ 2 mm, vw ¼ 1 m/min (left) and 2.5 m/min (right).
on the right, has received same amount of energy, yet the
geometry of the fusion zone and dimensions of surround- well, as long as there was sufficient laser power available.
ing HAZ are larger. HAZ is wider throughout the joint, and Figure 12 shows how the geometry of the bead is changing
the fusion at the root is not as complete as it was in 1F depending on the heat input.
position. Figure 12 displays the welds preformed with the same
The shape of the top bead of the 1F weld can be charac- laser power at heat inputs of 494 J/mm and 255 J/mm. The
terized as concave; the top of the weld bead has sunk. For area of the fusion zone is correlated to heat input, as welding
improving the quality of the fillet under existing setup, heat speed is increased, the weld narrows, but maintains the nee-
input has to be decreased, either by increasing the welding dlelike profile. While maintaining complete penetration, the
speed or by decreasing the laser power. The bead of the 2F weld shown on the right in Fig. 12 has a solidification crack-
weld is also concave; bead has smooth junction to base metal ing defect close to the root, which is common for high weld-
and corresponds to demands in standards. However, judging ing speeds.
from the geometry of the root, this weld requires more heat
input to be completely sound throughout the whole length of E. The effect of the welding speed on hardness
the seam. This phenomenon becomes less noticeable as the
heat input decreases (see Table III welds made with welding Hardness is one of the most important critical factors
speed of 1.75 and 2.25 m/min). Apparently, the parameter indicating the quality of the weld and its performance in
window for heat input seems to be narrower in case of 1F service. The hardness of the shipbuilding steel AH36 was
than in case of 2F, horizontal position also requires higher measured to be HV 170. Maximum allowable peak hardness
heat input for producing full penetration. according to the classification societies related to ship pro-
duction applications is 380 HV and hardness should be kept
2. HLAW under 350 HV. In this study, the hardness was measured
along the fusion lines of the laser and HLAW welds pro-
Figure 11 shows the effect of heat input on the geometry duced at corresponding welding speeds. All of the welds dis-
of the hybrid welds, only 1F welding position was used. played in Fig. 13 were made with 6 kW laser power and fpp
The areas of melt and HAZ increased linearly with of 2 mm.
increasing heat input [Figs. 11(c) and 11(d)], same can be At 2.25 m/min welding speed, the HLAW weld has full
said of the width of the weld bead. However, there is no penetration, while laser weld has lack of fusion in the root
straightforward correlation to dimensions of effective side. When comparing the welds produced with 1 m/min
throat [Fig. 11(b)]. The depth of the penetration is primar- welding speed, interesting phenomena occurred—hardness is
ily dependent on the laser power and full penetration welds lower in laser weld than in hybrid weld throughout the joint.
with narrow melt area were produced at low heat inputs as Corresponding heat inputs are 300 J/mm for laser weld and
430 J/mm for hybrid weld. As welding speed is increased
(heat input becomes smaller), situation is changed, thus,
higher welding speed (insufficient heat input) is the cause of
increased hardness and smaller penetration. Addition of the
filler wire and larger heat input in HLAW slows cooling of
the weld, resulting in smaller peak hardness.

FIG. 11. The effect of the heat input on the weld dimensions in hybrid weld- FIG. 13. The macro-indentation hardness profiles of the T-joints made with
ing. fpp ¼ 2 mm and beam angle of 6 . corresponding speeds using HLAW (up) and laser welding (down).
J. Laser Appl., Vol. 27, No. S2, February 2015 A. Unt and A. Salminen S29002-7

3
IV. CONCLUSIONS C. Gerritsen, “A review of the development and application of laser and
laser-arc hybrid welding in European shipbuilding,” in Proceedings of the
In this study, the effects of focal point position, beam in- 11th CF/DRDC International Meeting on Naval Applications of Materials
clination angle, welding position, and heat input on the ge- Technology, Halifax, Canada (2005).
4
A. Fellman, A. Salminen, and V. Kujanp€a€a, “The comparison of the
ometry of the fillet welds produced with laser and HLAW
effects of welding parameters on weld quality and hardness of T-butt joints
were examined. welded with CO2 laser, Nd:YAG laser and CO2 laser-GMA hybrid
In both welding processes, the focal point position below welding,” in Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on
the workpiece surface results in deeper penetration. Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics, San Francisco, CA (2004).
5
However, in the case of laser welding process, this results in A. Salminen, E. Lappalainen, and T. Purtonen, “A study on basic phe-
nomena in high power fiber laser welding of thick section low alloyed
under-filled top bead, while in HLAW process, the preferred steel,” in Proceedings of 37th MATADOR Conference (2012), pp.
concave top bead is achieved due to the filler wire added. 331–336.
6
The welds produced in 1F position were deeper than W. Suder, J. Camilleri, and S. Williams, “Hybrid laser welding of single
those welded in 2F position, having narrower fusion and sided fully penetrated fillet welds,” in Proceedings of the 31st
International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics,
HAZ. The gravity likely increases the melt flow inside of the Miami, FL (2013), pp. 244–251, LIA Publication No. 616.
melt pool in direction of the seam resulting in deeper pene- 7
EN ISO 13919-1, Welding—Electron and laser-beam welded joints—
tration in 1F welding position. 8
Guidance on quality levels for imperfections—Part 1: Steel (1996).
Beam inclination angle is a major factor influencing the M. V€ansk€a, F. Abt, R. Weber, A. Salminen, and T. Graf, “Effects of weld-
ing parameters onto keyhole geometry for partial penetration laser
penetration, as the weld is narrow and propagating along the welding,” Phys. Procedia 41, 199–208 (2013).
beam path. For obtaining full penetration, the beam should 9
M. M. Alam, Z. Barsoum, P. Jonsen, A. F. H. Kaplan, and H. A.
be positioned in a way that it passes the root of the weld or H€aggblad, “The influence of surface geometry and topography on the fa-
the melt pool reaches the root side. This can be achieved by tigue cracking behaviour of laser hybrid welded eccentric fillet joints,”
Appl. Surf. Sci. 256(6), 1936–1945 (2010).
increasing the distance of the beam from the flange while 10
K. Nilsson, S. Heimbs, H. Engstr€om, and A. Kaplan, “Parameter influence
simultaneously increasing the inclination angle. in CO2-/MIG hybrid welding,” in 56th Annual Assembly of the
Increasing the heat input increases the size of the melt International Institute of Welding, Bucharest, Romania, July 6–11, 2003,
area, HAZ, and width of the weld, while there was no IIW Document No. IV-843-03.
straightforward correlation to penetration depth, which is
strongly dependent on laser power. Meet the Authors
The hardness, measured from the fusion lines of the Ms. Anna Unt, M.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering) holds
weld, was rather uniform throughout the sample thickness. master degrees with majors in materials science (2009) and
The hardness of the welds produced at higher welding speeds laser processing (2010). Currently, she is a doctoral student
was below 400 HV, remaining in acceptable range for AH36 working as a research scientist at the Laboratory of Laser
material at welding speeds up to 2 m/min. Material Processing of Lappeenranta University of Technology
(LUT). Her recent work is focused on laser welding of struc-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS tural steels.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Pertti Kokko Professor Antti Salminen, D.Sc. (Laser Technology) has
for experimental assistance and Antti Heikkinen for help in more than 25 years of experience in laser materials process-
metallography. This study was carried out as a part of the ing of different materials at Lappeenranta University of
Finnish Metals and Engineering Competence Cluster Technology and industry as well. He has been running sev-
(FIMECC)’s program MANU—Future digital manufacturing eral academic studies and starting industrial laser installa-
technologies and systems. tions ever since. Currently, he is Professor of Laboratory of
Laser Materials Processing and head of research in the field
1
C. Gerritsen, J. Weldingh, and K. J. Klæstrup, “Development of Nd:YAG of laser processing in LUT. Currently, he is running projects
Laser-MAG hybrid welding of T-joints for shipbuilding,” in Proceedings of the
about laser based production applications in ship building,
10th Nordic Laser Materials Processing Conference, Lulea, Sweden (2005).
2
M. Banasik, J. Dworak, and S. Stano, “Laser welding with filler material laser welding with high power, laser process monitoring, and
in the form of a wire,” Weld. Int. 26(7), 516–520 (2012). laser additive manufacturing.