Abstract
CO2 laser welding of zinc-coated steel sheets in the lap configuration has been a major research effort for the automotive industry for many years. The introduction of a gap between the sheets is one way of solving the zinc gas explosion problem. However, this requires sophisticated clamping devices and spacer materials. A homogeneous gap is therefore difficult to realise in high volume production. This paper describes a simple but useful approach for CO2 laser welding of zinc-coated steel sheets in the lap configuration. By using a gated pulse mode, a seam welding process is developed that allows zinc-coated materials to be welded in a gap-free, overlap configuration. Laser seam welds in the lap configuration were produced in 0.7 mm-thick steel sheet with 7 μm zinc coating on both sides. A number of pulsed CO2 laser welding parameters, including peak power, duty cycle, travel speed, pulse repetition rate, and pulse energy, were identified. Furthermore, the effects of pulsed CO2 laser welding parameters on weldability were also investigated. The study shows that through the proper selection of welding parameters, it is possible to produce visually sound welds where porosity is still unavoidably formed. It was observed that decreasing the welding speed could reduce the porosity within the visually sound welds.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Riches S (2001) Automotive welding: industrial lasers and their application. Industry Search. Industracom, Australia
Pennington EJ (1987) US Patent No. 4642446
Piane AD, Sartorio F, Cantello M, Ghiringhello G (1987) US Patent No. 4682002
Rito N, Ohta M, Yamada T, Gotoh J, Kitagawa T (1988) US Patent No. 4745257
Imhoff R, Behler K, Gatzweiler W, Beyer E (1988) Laser beam welding in car body making. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Lasers in Manufacturing, pp 247–258
Akhter R, Steen WM, Cruciani D (1989) Laser welding of zinc-coated steel. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Lasers in Manufacturing, pp 105–120
Akhter R, Steen WM (1990) The gap model for welding zinc-coated steel sheet. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers Systems Application in Industry, Torino, Italy, pp 219–236
Graham MP, Hirak DM, Kerr HW, Weckman DC (1994) Nd:YAG laser welding of coated sheet steel. J Laser Appl 6(4):212–222
Raycon Co. (1988) US Patent No. 4873415
Petrick FD (1990) US Patent No. 4916284
General Motors (1991) US Patent No. 5187346
Spies B, Thomas V (1992) US Patent No. 5104032
Berlinger G, Speranza JJ (1987) US Patent 4684779
Ream S (1991) Laser welding of zinc-coated steel. In: Laser applications in materials processing and manufacturing. Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME), Southfield, MI
Mitsubishi Co. (1993) US Patent 5618452
Ford Motor Co. (1973) US Patent 3881084
General Motors (1992) US Patent 5371337
Heydon J, Nilsson K, Magnusson C (1989) Laser welding of zinc-coated steel. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Lasers in Manufacturing, pp 93–104
Kennedy SC, Norris IM (1989) Nd-YAG laser welding of bare and galvanized steels. SAE Technical Paper Series 890887, International Congress and Exposition, Detroit, MI
Norris I, Hoult T, Peters C, Wileman P (1992) Material processing with a 3 kW Nd:YAG laser. In: Proceedings of Laser Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP), Nagaoka, Japan
Tzeng YF (1999) Pulsed Nd:YAG laser seam welding of zinc-coated steel. Welding J 78(7):238s–244s
Tolinski M (2001) Laser welding takes a shine to aluminum. Forming Fabr 8(1):1–3
Loredo A, Martin B, Andrzejewski H, Grevey D (2002) Numerical support for laser welding of zinc-coated sheets process development. Appl Surface Sci 195:297–303
Xie J (2002) Dual beam laser welding. Welding J 81(10):223s–230s
Roland-Lee F (2001) Laser welding with dual wavelength technology. Newsletter of Fraunhofer USA, Spring
PRC Corporation (1999) Laser operation manual. Landing, NJ 07850
Steen WM (2001) Laser material processing, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Matsunawa A (1994) Defects formation mechanisms in laser welding and their suppression methods. In: Proceeding of ICALEO’94, LIA, Orlando, FL, October 17–20, vol 79, pp 203–209
Katayama S, Kohsaka S, Mizutani M, Nishizawa K, Matsunawa A (1993) Pulse shape optimization for defect prevention in pulsed laser welding of stainless steels. In: Proceeding of ICALEO’93, LIA, Orlando, FL, 24–28 October 1993, vol 77, pp 487–497
Matsunawa A, Kim JD, Seto N, Mizutani M, Katayama S (1999) Dynamics of keyhole and molten pool in laser welding. International Institute of Welding (IIW), Lisbon, IV-751-99, pp 1–9
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yih-fong, T. Gap-free lap welding of zinc-coated steel using pulsed CO2 laser. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 29, 287–295 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-005-2522-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-005-2522-3