Introduction

to Laser Welding
Lorraine Blais,
Project Manager
lblais@cstpq.com

Laser welding has been used by the automotive

industry for several years. Namely, Fiat installed a
CO2 laser in 1975 to weld power train components.

In the 1980’s, car builders began replacing resistance

spot welding by laser welding for the production of
tailored welded blanks. These assemblies of metal
sheets of different thicknesses and metallurgical
compositions can be stamped and provide, exactly
where needed, specific mechanical and metallurgical
properties.

Despite the fact that a large part of the manufacturers

have a very limited knowledge of laser welding, it
is a mature process that has already proven all the
advantages it can bring to a production line.

Figure 1 : Laser welding of

a steel structure at CSTPQ

The Process
Laser welding usually uses a laser source emitting a beam of infrared light. The beam
is invisible to the human eye and can be a severe threat to workers’s safety if suitable
security procedures are not applied. Consequently, laser welding is done by a robot (or
other type of automated motion system) in a light tight enclosure.

Laser welding can be realized in two modes: conduction and keyhole. Conduction welding
is done in the liquid phase and requires a power density of 105 W/cm2. Keyhole welding
implies vaporizing the metal with a power density of 106 W/cm2. The capillary, small
« tube » of metal vapor formed in the base metal, allows the formation of typical
narrow deep welds (see Figure 2), while conduction welding
presents a limited penetration.

Knowing that the laser beam focus diameter is usually around

½ mm, powers over 1 kW are very often needed to weld in keyhole
mode.

The advantages of laser welding are :

- Speed of the process ;
- precision ;
- possibility to join dissimilar materials ;
- the small space required for the laser beam to access the parts
to be welded ;
- excellent control of projections ;
- limited deformations ;
- possibility to weld in overlap configuration ; Figure 2 Joint
- ability to produce welds that are perfectly tight to air and liquid. resulting in
stainless steel
304, 0.090’’

Equipment
Several types of high power laser sources are
currently suitable for laser welding. Diode, CO2 and
Nd:YAG sources have been available for many years
and have proven to be reliable in a large number of
applications.

More recently, fiber lasers and disk Yb:YAG lasers

conquered large market shares due to their high
efficiency and to the numerous advantages of the high
optical quality of the beam they produce.

Each technology having its own forces and weaknesses

and being adapted to specific applications, it does not
seem possible to declare either of them absolutely
superior to the other. The choice of a laser source is
made according to the application and to the
specific priorities of the end user.
Figure 3 : 3 kW
fiber laser source
CSTPQ has chosen fiber laser as the « heart » of its laser welding cell. The main points
that led to this choice were, among others:

- unequaled wallplug efficiency of fiber lasers ;

- high optical quality of the laser beam ;
- almost no maintenance required ;
- very low operational cost ;
- no preheating period needed ;
- possibility to use very long optic fiber cables (up to 200 m!), with a low diameter
between the laser source and the workpiece ;
- possibility to upgrade the laser source to higher power by adding power modules ;
- very small footprint.

Once generated, the laser beam can be split between

several working points (several welding cells or
several robots). This sharing can be done in time
or in power. While power sharing allows making
more than one weld at the same time, time sharing
is mostly used to feed up to eight processing cells
with a single laser source. Considering setup and
unloading usually take a lot longer than processing, it
is indeed a good way to optimize the investment…

In the case of diode laser, YAG laser and fiber laser,

the laser beam can be transmitted to the working
point using a fiber optic cable, whose length
limitation depends on the type and power of the
laser source.

The beam passes from the fiber optic cable to a

collimator (a lens that « straightens » the diverging
beam exiting the fiber optic cable) and enters the
welding head itself. Inside this welding head, the
beam is focalized on the parts to be welded, at a
distance that can vary from 15 cm to 2 m.

Figure 4 : Welding at
a 30 cm distance
Putting the laser at work
Laser welding opens the door to numerous innovations in term of conception. Remote
welding, overlap welding, joining of dissimilar material, etc. bring possibilities for new
products and manufacturing avenues.

Many materials are laser weldable: steel, titanium, stainless steel, thermoplastics, etc.
Since a research center form NRC in Saguenay is already active in laser welding of
aluminum, CSTPQ chose to concentrate on steel (galvanized, stainless, highly alloyed…).
Development work on other metals (copper, brass, powder metallurgy based alloys, etc)
have also been conducted.

Stainless steel is particularly suitable for laser welding. With proper parameters,
one can obtain nice welds with very low deformation and no discoloration on the
underside of an overlap weld (if the weld is not a full penetration one, of course). With a
3 kW fiber laser, CSTPQ easily welds two 0.060’’ thick 304 stainless steel plates at a
7 m/min process speed. With more powerful laser sources, speeds in the range of
20 m/min can be reached!

Overlap welding of galvanized steel brings

some additional challenge. Zinc vapor
quickly forms between the parts and
can cause important lacks of material in
the weld bead. Different techniques can
prevent the zinc vapor to escape through
the melt pool - taking away with it a fair
amount of molten material. Unfortunately,
use of these techniques often implies
additional manufacturing operation
and a high precision. But even then, the
productivity gain is still worth it…
Figure 5 : Welding on
galvanized steel

One of the main difficulties one faces when bringing laser welding to the production
floor is its low gap bridgeability. As no filler material is used in most cases, the parts
need to be in intimate contact to fuse.
For butt joints, the maximal gap between parts is around 0.004’’ for parts under 0.080’’
thick. Control and preparation of parts to be welded calls for particular attention...
Happily enough some joint configurations make things easier than others.

To fully experience the benefits of laser welding, it is highly recommended to adapt the
design of the parts to the process. Laser welding a part designed for another process
usually limits the gains in term of productivity and quality.

Hybrid Welding
In some cases, the use of filler material is necessary, either to bridge gaps, to produce
very high strength joints or to avoid cracking. Hybrid laser/arc welding can then
be used.

This process combines an electric arc and a laser beam in the same weld pool. One
can then benefit from the high tolerance to gaps (thanks to the filler material), from
deep penetration of the laser and to the wide weld pool of the arc welding process.
Additionally, because of high welding speeds leading to low heat input, the parts suffer
less deformation and degradation of mechanical properties compared to parts welded
by sole arc welding. Finally, no parts preparation is necessary (no chamfer), and this
alone represents an important economy.

Figure 6 : Hybrid laser/GMAW welding at CSTPQ

Several processes can be combined to the laser : GMAW, GTAW, PAW… CSTPQ uses
laser/GMAW, as shown on figure 6.

Figure 8 : Butt joint on ¼’’ thick Figure 7 : Hybrid weld, T joint on 5/16’’
steel, one pass, no preparation thick steel, one pass, no preparation

In Conclusion…
Because of its speed, precision and flexibility, laser welding can greatly improve
productivity and quality of assemblies. After Europe and Asia, North America is now
ready to adopt this process.

As the cost of the equipment has considerably come down over the last decade, it is
now accessible and cost effective for many manufacturing companies.

CSTPQ offers information, development services and technical support on laser welding.
For any question on this process, please contact Lorraine Blais at (418) 856-4350
# 105 or lblais@cstpq.com .