Advanced manufacturing processes (ME F315)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

BITS Pilani K. K. Birla Goa campus
Instructor in charge: Dr. Biswajit Das
Office No.- E107
Tel: +91-832-2580381 (O)

BITS Pilani K. K. Birla GoaDr.campus

Manoj Kumar Pandey
Laser Welding of work-piece
1. Laser Conduction Welding-
* Joining of thin metal sheets
* Laser power densities: Relatively low < 5x105 W/cm2.
* Two metal surfaces melt and
* Full thickness melts due to heat conduction from top hot surface.

Laser Beam
Solid

Liquid Isotherms

t=2

Conduction Welding - Thermal Diffusivity

- Laser Interaction Time = Laser pulse duration ;
And, in case of CW laser scan ,
 = Laser dwell time = Beam diameter d/Welding speed v
In conduction welding the depth to width aspect ratio is about 1.5.
2. Deep Penetration / Keyhole Welding
Thicker sheets (>3mm):
Higher Laser Power
At intensities > 106 W/cm2, a small
amount of metal vaporizes & plasma is
formed.
Escaping vapour exerts a recoil pressure
on the molten pool creating a key hole
Laser beam is absorbed in the hole in
multiple reflections and in metal vapour
plasma and heat is transmitted to the
work-piece through the walls of the hole.
Deep penetration Welding
Aspect ratio in Keyhole welding = 3-
5
Scan velocity determines the shape of keyhole and
cooling rate determines the microstructure of weldmet
 Operating parameters
• Beam characteristics
• Beam Power & Power Density
• Beam Power distribution, i.e. Mode
• Polarization
• Mode of operation: CW, Pulsed

• Process Parameters
• Beam diameter & focus

• Material Properties • Welding Speed

• Joint Geometries: Butt, Lap… • Shielding / Shroud gas

• Gap Tolerance
Parameter effect: Laser Power Density

Keyhole
welding

Conduction
welding
 Beam Power & Scan speed

1 kW of laser power per mm thickness is needed to weld at 1 m/min.

Energy Balance Equation: CL.(1-R). PL =V.w.t. (.Cp.Tm + Lf)

where CL = 0.48 to account for conduction loss; V-Welding speed,

Laser Welding Advantages
• Can be used in open air
• Can be transmitted over long distances with a minimal power loss
• Narrow heat affected zone (HAZ)
• Low total thermal input
• Welds dissimilar metals
• No filler metals necessary: Autogenous Weld
• No secondary finishing necessary
• Extremely accurate
• Welds high alloy metals without difficulty

Laser Welding Limitations

• Rapid cooling rate may cause cracking in certain metals
• High capital cost
• High maintenance cost
Laser Welding Applications
Automobile Sector – (> 65% )
 Tailored welded blanks for automobile
body blanks.
 Welding of Transmission components
– gears, various coupling & differentials

Specialized applications
 Hydraulic bearing thrust units
 Joining of Diamond or WC impregnated steels to tool tips.
 Welding of thin fins to high finned tube heat exchangers.
 Welding of pipelines
 Welding of bimetallic saw blades
 Repair of nuclear boiler from inside
 Spot welding in TV tubes
 Welding of heart-pacemaker
 Laser drilling problem

A Nd:YAG pulsed laser operating at 1.06 µm wavelength has 6 mm beam

diameter and beam quality factor M2=40. A single pulse of 10J energy and 10
ms duration from this laser is focused with a lens of focal length 100 mm on a
metal surface to drill a hole. During the drilling process, about 60% of the laser
energy is absorbed by the metal, 20% of the metal is removed evaporation and
remaining 80% molten metal is ejected by the recoil pressure of vapor.

Properties of the metal during drilling process is given as:

Density=2000 Kg/m3, Cp=700 J/KgK, average temperature of the molten
metal=1000°C, boiling temperature of molten metal= 2000°C latent heat of
fusion=400 kJ/kg, latent heat of evaporation=9000 kJ/kg.

Neglecting the heat conduction and other losses estimate the following:

(i) Depth of the drilled hole

(ii) Drilling speed and recoil pressure of the vapor during drilling process
assuming density of the vapor is 1000 times less than solid density.
 Laser Marking
Laser marking is popular for:
• Packages for beverages, food, cosmetics, pharmaceutics bottles,
cans, labels, kegs, tubes, trays, cardboards,
• Manufacturer, type and inventory plates, identity and
credit cards
• Electronic components such as ICs, (SMD-) capacitors, resistors,
switches, circuit boards, sensors
• Keyboards, control panels
• Plastic, metal and glass housings
• Woods: furniture, building timber, gifts etc.
• Medical products such as surgical instruments, catheters, implants,
capsules.
Marking methods in laser marking technologies

There are two basic methods for laser marking:

(i) Mask marking and
(ii) Beam deflected marking. Marking around an artificial
hip joint
 Physical phenomena in laser marking

Vaporization: Materials such as plastic, glass, ceramic,

rubber and metals

Softening/Melting: Metals, epoxies and glass.

Layer removal/ablation: A thin layer of plastic film, annealing of stainless steel.

paper, ink or paint is vaporized exposing the under-layer

of a different color.

Color change: Chemical change can be either photo- or

thermal-induced color change, e.g. excimer laser
induced photo-chemical process and
CO2 laser induced thermal-chemical color change on
PVC (gray to red-brown).
Laser Engraving
Surface cleaning of art:
Lasers used: UV Excimer Lasers or 4rd Harmonics (266nm) Q-
switched Nd:YAG Laser

20 ns KrF excimer (UV) laser pulses

Ablation depth per pulse is about
1m

No damage to Art work: Process

monitoring of the laser induced
plasma by real time spectroscopy
allows for precise control of the
ablation depth and identification of
the different layers.

Partial (left) and fully cleaned fine arts,

http://www.art-innovation.nl.

Laser Surface cleaning by Ablation & Paint Striping with pulsed Lasers
Basic Principle:
Laser Metal Forming
Laser- material interaction: *
Localized heating of the surface without melting.
* Heating causes the expansion of the material in a confined region.
* Thermal Stresses induced into the surface of work- piece
* Due to continuity of the heated region with the surrounding
material, the free expansion of the hot region is resisted, resulting
in bending of the part.
* Plastic strains or Local elastic-plastic Buckling
LASER
Laser Power Material Properties:
Absorption *Thermal Conductivity
Coefficient *Thermal Expansion
Scan Speed
Coefficient *Heat
capacity *Density
Beam Size *Elastic
modulus *Yield
Sheet strength
Thickness
 Mechanisms of Laser Forming
1. Temperature Gradient
i. Fast Heating of the Surface
ii. Steep Temperature gradient sets-in along
thickness
iii. Reduction of Yield-strength with
temperature
iv. Non-uniform Thermal Expansion
v. Development of counter-bending –
bending away from laser beam Isotherm
vi. Bending moment opposes the counter- T0 >>T1
bending
vii. When thermal stress exceeds Yield strength
Thermal Expansion into Plastic T1
Compression Strains
viii. Compressive stress at the top since free
expansion is resisted by the surrounding
cooler material
ix. Cooling of top surface & thermal
contraction
x. Heat flow to back surface
xi. Development of the bending angle
Laser Shock Peening
 Shock peening is basically a surface treatment of metals
 Basic process: Laser pulse generates mechanical impulse and high pressure
shock waves which induces compressive stress up to ~1mm deep – Four
times higher than shot peening
 Fatigue life of the components undergoing cyclic stress is improved
 Resistance to corrosion and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is improved
 Also, shock wave induced plastic deformation leads to strain hardening
Laser Shock Peening:
An absorbent coating is placed on the
workpiece surface
On top of that a thin layer of transparent
material is placed. This is usually water
layer as water is transparent to
near-infrared ( ~1µm) and visible laser
wavelengths
Laser used Schematic representation
Nd: YAG / Nd: Glass Lasers of the Laser Peening
Pulse energy: 1-100J,
Pulse duration: 3-100ns Intensity by order of magnitude
Focused to provide  7 GW/cm2 and duration of pressure by 2-3
times increased by coating the
Ablation of absorbent layer and High metal surface with a transparent
temperature (10,000K) and high pressure layer :water or glass
(GPa ) Plasma formation
In blowing off, Plasma induces a mechanical impulse in the
solid. This produces high compressive stress in metals which
improves the wear & fatigue resistance
 Residual Stresses induced by Laser Peening and Conventional Shot Peening

Inconel 718

Journal if you are interested further: Charles S. Montross et.al., Int. J Fatigue, 24 (2002), 1021-1036
 Micro-machining with UV Excimer Lasers

a: 3-D structure (ceramic), b: micro-lens array (glass)

c: trimmed sensor (quartz), d: micro-cut (PTFE)
Thank you
for
your patience

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