Abstract
Plasma arc welding (PAW) is a modern welding technique for challenging joining tasks in a wide range of materials and plate thicknesses, A further improvement of the welding characteristics involving achievable welding speed, process stability and penetration depth is expected by an additional low energy laser beam with a maximum output power of 600 W, The paper presents an experimental and numerical analysis of the interaction between a plasma arc and a superimposed laser beam, The experiments are carried out with a non-concentric set-up of the plasma arc column and the laser beam, As results of bead-on-plate welding trials the cross-sectional weld areas were presented in order to demonstrate benefits of the combined process in comparison to separately conducted arc and laser welding, Furthermore, high speed video images (1 kHz frame rate) with synchronized current and voltage recording (1 MHz frame rate) were used, The experimental results demonstrate a different behaviour for welding steel and aluminium, In case of welding aluminium, an arc guidance was observed whereas destabilization effects occur for welding ferrous alloys, A numerical magneto hydro dynamical (MHD) arc model with a concentric set-up of arc column and laser beam set-up was aimed to improve our understanding of relevant interaction phenomena between the plasma arc and the laser beam.
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Schnick, M., Rose, S., Füssel, U. et al. Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the Interaction between a Plasma Arc And a Laser. Weld World 56, 93–100 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03321339
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03321339