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Laser welding with filler material in the form of a

wire
a a a
Marek Banasik , Jerzy Dworak & Sebastian Stano
a
Welding Technology Unit , Welding Institute , Gliwice , Poland
Published online: 01 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: Marek Banasik , Jerzy Dworak & Sebastian Stano (2012) Laser welding with filler material in the form
of a wire, Welding International, 26:7, 516-520, DOI: 10.1080/09507116.2011.600004

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09507116.2011.600004

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 Welding International
Vol. 26, No. 7, July 2012, 516–520
Selected from Biuleteyn Instytytu Spawalnictwa 2009 (2) 33 – 37

Laser welding with filler material in the form of a wire

Marek Banasik, Jerzy Dworak and Sebastian Stano
Welding Technology Unit, Welding Institute, Gliwice, Poland

Introduction
The laser welding technology is currently being applied
more widely, enabling the manufacture of welded
elements of innovative design, both in terms of shape
and materials used to make them. The basic laser welding
technique is using a laser beam to fuse unchamfered edges
of elements pressed together without a gap. A specific heat
source such as the laser beam causes, however, that both
the process of welding and the metallurgical processes
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occurring in the weld metal during welding are different

from the processes typical for arc welding methods. Laser-
welded joints have, therefore, often different properties
than those which would be expected using conventional
welding technologies. These properties are difficult to
predict accurately, because the process of laser welding
itself is still the subject of diverse research activities.
The shortcomings of the basic variant of the method may,
however, be reduced or completely eliminated through
various process modifications in the form of special Figure 1. Diagram of the laser-welding process with deep
penetration.
welding techniques. One such technique is laser welding
with filler material in the form of a wire.
for welding without filler is the same. Under certain
conditions cold cracking may, therefore, occur in laser-
Specifics of the laser welding process welded joints.
Characteristic features of the laser-welding process –
In the primary, classic form of laser welding the weld is
formed solely from the materials of the joined edges high welding speed, specific shape of the weld, and
molten by the heat of the focused laser beam (Figures 1 turbulent nature of the processes occurring in the
and 2). gasodynamic channel (the equivalent of the weld pool)
This kind of laser-welding technique, known as deep may under certain conditions and for some materials
penetration welding, has several advantages, which constitute factors contributing to the emergence of
include first of all: a very favourable weld shape ratio unconformities in the welded joints, such as cold cracking,
(small width in relation to large depth), small heat-affected hot cracking, or porosity.
zone, very small deformation of welded components and Therefore, an essential condition for obtaining welded
high process efficiency. joints with specific properties is the precise selection of
A specific heat source such as the focused laser beam linear welding energy, both in terms of limiting the
of very high power density has an effect on the welding occurrence of hardening structures, and other welding
process. It is different from the process characteristic for unconformities (especially in hot cracks, blisters, etc.).
the conventional methods (arc welding). It is characterized
primarily by impulse heating of the material (6000 –
10,000 K/s), a small amount of heat energy transferred to
the material, and a very short cooling time in the
temperature range of 850 –5008C (typically less than 1 s).
Martensitic structures may, therefore, be present in joints
welded using this technique, even for easily weldable
alloyed and low-alloy structural steels1,2. In laser welding
of such steels, the occurrence of such structures can be Figure 2. Macrostructure of a 3-mm-thick joint made of steel
expected both in the weld and in the heat-affected zone. S355J2 welded using a 3800 W laser beam (Welding Institute,
The chemical composition of the weld and base material Gliwice).
ISSN 0950-7116 print/ISSN 1754-2138 online
q 2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09507116.2011.600004
http://www.tandfonline.com
 Welding International
Equipment-related conditions for obtaining properly made
joints are: precise guidance of the laser beam along the
contact trajectory, power stability, and maintaining a
constant position of the beam focal point to the surface of
the joined elements.
Edge preparation of materials to be laser-welded using
the basic technique, i.e. one beam, without filler, has a
significant effect on the quality of the joints. The process is
very significantly affected by the width of the gap between
the joined elements. Its permissible size depends on the
welding speed and depth of penetration. When welding
parts with low thickness, it should not normally exceed
0.1 mm.
The presence of even a small gap between the joined
elements can lead to increased tensile stress in the forming
weld as a result of shrinkage of the solidifying metal, to
such an extent that a loss of metallic continuity may occur
in the joint. If the gap width exceeds about 20% of the
thickness of the material and the welding process is carried
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out without adding filler, the weld can be characterized by
a high porosity and significantly lowered face of the weld.
In extreme cases no joint is created.
The shortcomings of this method described above
can be reduced or completely eliminated by replacing
the conventional laser-welding process with the laser
welding technique with filler, in the form of e.g. a wire.
The diagram of such welding process has been shown in
Figure 3. In this process, the welding wire can be fed
in various ways: in the direction of movement of the
welding head (behind the laser beam) and opposite to
the direction of movement of the welding head (before
the laser beam)1,3,4,6.
The method of feeding the wire (its position relative to
the radiation beam and the contact surface of the edges of
the joined elements) is essential for the stability of the
process and the quality of the weld. The wire is fed into the
gasodynamic channel area at a specific angle with respect
to the axis of the beam (usually about 30– 45 degrees),
Figure 3. (a) Diagram of the laser-welding process with deep
penetration; (b, c, d) various methods of melting wire during laser
welding with filler material.
517
Figure 4. Macrostructure of a 5-mm-thick joint made of steel
S355J2 welded using a laser beam with filler material in the form
of wire G3Si1, Ø1.2 mm (Welding Institute, Gliwice).
usually opposite to the direction of movement of the
welding head (before the laser beam)2,4,8. In the case of
welding elements of a thickness exceeding a few
millimetres (about 5– 6 mm) and with chamfered edges,
the laser beam is usually focused below the surface of the
welded material and the wire is fed at the beam focal point.
Depending on the wire feed speed three ways of
melting metal can be distinguished:
Method 1. At low feeding speeds the wire melts heated
by the heat emitted by the plasma cloud that forms over the
gasodynamic channel, before it finds itself under the direct
influence of the laser beam. The metal transferred to weld
pool takes the form of drops.
Method 2. An increase in wire feeding speed puts it in
the beam area. The melted metal forms a bridge between
the wire and the molten metal surrounding the gaso-
dynamic channel. A part of the wire shields and absorbs
the laser radiation.
Method 3. Further increase in wire feeding speed
causes the wire to absorb the radiation in a part of the full
cross-section of the beam and is fused at the top.
The most advantageous to the formation of the weld is
the process of wire melting equivalent to the conditions of
phase 2, i.e. when there is a continuous, stable
transmission of molten wire metal through the bridge
connecting it with the gasodynamic channel.
The precision of wire positioning relative to the beam
focal point and the stability of wire feeding are essential
conditions for laser welding technology with the addition
of filler. The tolerance of head and wire feeder positioning
in relation to the joint should be approximately ^ 0.2 mm
in all directions. For laser welding with filler material in
the form of a wire specialized, high-precision, push – pull
type wire feeders are used, the control system of which is
adequately integrated with the type of kinematic solutions
used in the laser welding machine and its control system.
Such feeder should provide a very stable wire feeding
speed to about 20 m/min and a suitably short outlet wire,
usually less than 5 mm. Wires with a diameter of 0.8, 1.0,
and 1.2 mm are usually used as fillers.
A laser beam of specific power at a given welding speed
(speed of movement of the welding head) is able to dissolve
a certain amount of material. In the process of laser welding,
adding filler means that the heat resulting from the
interaction of the laser beam with the surface of the material
is consumed for melting of both the base metal and the filler.
Compared to the basic technique of laser welding, welding
with filler requires the welding speed to be reduced to even
 518 M. Banasik et al.
Figure 5. Trumpf Laser Cell 1005 with a wire feed module: (a) wire feed module mounted on the z-axis guide; (b) laser welding of tee
joints with filler material in welder TLC 1005 (Welding Institute, Gliwice).
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about 60%. This disadvantage can be reduced by using a
special so-called hot wire feeder. The wire is resistance
heated in a specific section of the feeder to a temperature of
about 8008C. This welding method allows for increasing the
speed of welding (by about 30%) and reducing the linear
energy of process (by about 20%) as compared to welding
with cold wire. It then becomes possible to get a more
favourable shape of the weld compared to welding with
cold wire. The weld becomes narrower and the fusion
boundaries are more uniform4.
The method of supplying shielding gas to the weld is
also important for the welding process. The shielding gas
can be fed coaxially with the beam, coaxially with the
wire, or from an independent nozzle, the positioning of
which depends on the relationship between the geometrical
axis of the beam and the wire (typically 30– 608 in relation
to the beam axis)6. The most widely used shielding gas is
argon. In the case of welding with filler it is sometimes
preferable to use helium, due to its greater resistance to the
formation of a plasma cloud above the gasodynamic
channel, which has a strong shielding effect on the
radiation beam. Such a cloud is usually formed in the
presence of a high-power laser beam (greater than 3 kW),
i.e. the one used for joining thick elements, including
welding with filler. To maintain a stable welding process, it
becomes necessary to increase the power of the laser.
However, this results in increased linear process energy.
For the sake of the main advantage of this method – low
value of linear energy and small deformation of joints – it
is advantageous to use helium as shielding gas, as it is more
resistant to ionization. Physical and chemical properties of
this gas also allow increasing the speed of the welding
process (as compared to argon shielded arc welding) to
about 50%, thus reducing the linear energy input and the
amount of heat entering the material.
Preparation of butt joints for laser welding with filler
can vary and depends primarily on the thickness of the
joined elements as well as on other process parameters:
laser beam power, wire diameter, etc. The joined elements
can be arranged with a specific gap, without chamfering
(preparation ‘I’), or with chamfering (preparation ‘V’) at a
specified angle (usually small, about 6 –108). Chamfering
of the edges creates a prismatic guide for the wire after
putting the joined elements together, ensuring its stable
position relative to the axis of the joint and the beam.
An example of equipment for laser welding using the
filler technique may be the Trumpf Laser Cell 1005
welding cell with a CO2 laser and wire feed module
(Figure 5), available at the Welding Institute. If laser
welding with filler is conducted in robotic cells equipped
with YAG lasers, HPDL or fibre lasers, specialized
welding heads for soldering, and brazing with wire are
placed on the robot’s wrist.
Benefits of using laser welding with filler material in
the form of a wire
Laser welding with filler material can be used to perform
various types of joints, some examples of which are shown
in Figure 6.
In the case of tee joints, laser welding with no
additional material allows to join the elements only with a
butt weld, which is formed from the molten shelf and web
areas. It is a process that requires precise matching of both
elements, and is in many cases made more difficult due to
the need for the operating head and the feeder to be
positioned in the welding area, particularly for elements of
larger size. Using laser welding with filler in the form of a
wire, it is possible to make specific fillet welds with
Figure 6. Examples of various sheet metal and pipe joints,
which can be welded using the laser welding method with filler.
 Welding International
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Figure 7. Tee joint laser welded with filler material (Welding
Institute, Gliwice); material: steel S235J2, thickness 3 mm; wire:
G3S1; Ø0.8 mm; process parameters, focal length of welding
head f ¼ 270 mm, laser beam power P ¼ 2600 W; wire feed
speed v dr ¼ 3.7 m/min; welding speed v sp ¼ 1.5 m/min;
shielding gas: He, 12 l/min.
geometry similar to the geometry of fillet welds made
using arc welding methods (Figure 7). It is possible to
precisely specify the thickness of the weld (as for a typical
fillet weld made using arc welding methods) and the depth
of penetration in the base material for both elements of the
tee joint (like for a typical laser weld). Joint preparation for
such a process does not require such a precise arrangement
of welded elements as is required in the case of welding
using a single laser beam, and the weld has a much larger
active cross section.
The technique of laser welding with filler material in
the form of a wire can also be used for multi-bead welding,
used in technological cases in which it is preferable to use
a laser with less power and make a few stitches, rather than
to perform the technique of deep penetration with full
fusion of the element in one pass (one bead).
In the manufacturing process of a wide variety of metal
structures, it is often required to create weld joints of
Figure 8. Bush and bracket laser welded with filler (Welding Institute, Gliwice); welder: TLC 1005; material: bush – SAE1008,
thickness 3 mm; bracket S355MC; wire: G3S1; Ø1.2 mm.
519
elements, which are not subsequently machined, i.e. after
the final stage of plastic forming (spinning, stamping,
bending, etc.). Such elements often have a dimensional
tolerance field specific to a given technology, and their
arrangement does not often meet the requirements for
welding with one (independent) laser beam. Specific
shapes of welded elements, a complex trajectory of the
weld bead (different bend radii and fillets), and a usually
small wall thickness pose additional difficulties (Figure 8).
The technique of laser welding with filler material in the
form of a wire allows for creating this type of joints,
replacing other methods such as arc welding or heat
welding, while maintaining high aesthetics and achieving
a significant reduction in welding deformations.
The technique of laser welding with filler material in
the form of a wire can be used not only to join elements
with too large a gap between the edges of the joined
elements, or to limit the deformation of weld joints
(significant in case of arc welding methods), but also
primarily to regulate the chemical composition of the
weld. For example, it becomes possible to reduce the
carbon content in the weld for laser-welded construction
steels and reduce the dynamics of the thermal cycle
process, thereby reducing the risk of formation of
hardening structures.
For joints of certain types of aluminium alloys, the use
of filler material significantly reduces the risk of hot
cracking in the welds. Using filler material can help to i.e.
significantly improve (stabilize) the process of laser
welding of aluminium alloys and improve the quality and
aesthetics of the joints.
Depending on the type of alloy and the process
parameters selected for welding aluminium alloys,
disturbances arising from the interaction between laser
beam and the cloud of metal vapour can become clearly
visible. The instability of this interaction leads to turbulent
changes in the gasodynamic channel which become
apparent mainly as unconformities in the face of weld
(local intense head formation at weld face, melting,
irregular arrangement of scales, burnout, etc.). The filler
material in the form of a wire with a carefully selected
chemical composition and feed rate can significantly
contribute to reducing the occurrence of these unconfor-
mities (Figure 9)12,13.
This facilitates and expands the industrial applications
of this process (Figures 10 and 11). The pulley presented in
 520 M. Banasik et al.
Figure 9. Face view of a weld created by laser welding of alloy AlMgSi0.7 T612: (a) w/o filler; (b) with filler.
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Figure 10. Pulley for car aircon system made of series 6000
aluminium alloy, laser welded using a 10 kW CO2 laser13.
Figure 10, made of aluminium alloy, is much lighter
compared to an equivalent steel component and does not
require balancing, due to very small deformations caused
by laser welding.
Laser welding with filler is also used to manufacture
i.e. electric motor bodies, which require a very high leak
tightness of the cooling jacket (Figure 11)13.
Figure 11. Electric motor body made of aluminium alloy series
6000, laser welded using a 10 kW CO2 laser13.
Concluding remarks
The technique of laser welding with filler material in the
form of a wire is a much more complicated variation of
laser welding than the basic method of single-beam
welding. It requires a very careful selection of a number of
process parameters. Welding machines with advanced
control systems providing precise control of the beam
power and stable wire feeding are very useful for welding
with this technique. The welding speed is significantly
slower than for the basic technique of laser welding,
but due to its various advantages the welding technique
with filler material is applied in the production of many
high-tech products of modern industry.
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