Investigations on the Specifics of Laser Power Modulation in Laser Beam Welding of Round Bars

Abstract

Welding round bars of large diameters in a rotational laser beam welding process corresponds with weld pool bulging and the risk of weld defects. Power modulation is a promising approach for bulge reduction and for keyhole stabilisation to achieve superior weld quality. The following investigations are about the specific effects of power modulation for round bars with a diameter of 30 mm. The welding speed is 0.95 m/min and argon is used as shielding and process gas. Triangle shaped power modulation at 8 kW average laser beam power, 0/2/4/6 kW amplitude power and 2/10/50 Hz modulation frequency is used for the round bar welding of a 1.4301 steel alloy. The welds are evaluated by visual inspection, metallographic cross sections and scanning acoustic microscopy. The amount of weld defects increases at medium and high power modulation, but weld pool bulging is already reduced at low power modulation. Weld pool bulging can be impeded by a low normalised power modulation frequency of 0.05 and a high modulation depth of 0.86. The power modulation’s advantages of weld mixing and degassing do not apply to rotational round bar welding because of the linear welding speed’s gradient from the specimen surface to the centre.