Title

Laser marginal lap microwelding for ultrathin sheet metal

Authors

Authors

J. Du; J. Longobardi; W. P. Latham;A. Kar

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Laser Appl.

Keywords

laser welding; thin sheet metal; heat conduction model; microwelding; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Optics; Physics, Applied

Abstract

Butt welding is practically difficult for sheet metals as thin as 50-100 mum. A new concept called marginal lap welding is developed in this study to produce continuous and distortion-free welds for such thin sheets. The energy loss due to heat conduction into the clamps becomes significant under this situation, and therefore, the input laser power to produce an effective weld increases. This article investigates the effects of heat loss during marginal lap welding of ultrathin stainless-steel (SS316L) sheets experimentally and theoretically. A mathematical model is developed to calculate the amount of conduction heat loss and the weld geometry. The results show that a smaller clamp gap causes more heat loss into the clamps and generates a narrow heat-affected zone, which is found to be beneficial to the corrosion resistance of the weldment. (C) 2002 Laser Institute of America.

Journal Title

Journal of Laser Applications

Volume

14

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

4

Last Page

8

WOS Identifier

WOS:000174256800003

ISSN

1042-346X

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