Authors: Fanrong Kong Wei Liu Junjie Ma Ernest Levert Radovan Kovacevic
Publish Date: 2013/06/07
Volume: 57, Issue: 5, Pages: 693-699
Abstract
Laser welding assisted by a cold filler wire LWCFW and hybrid laser–gas metal arc HLGMA welding were applied to execute the welding of 663mmthick highstrength steel HSS plates The corresponding hardness distribution tensile strength and micrographs of the welded HSS were experimentally obtained Results show that LWCFW can achieve a good weld quality without the groove preparation that is usually required in HLGMA welding A narrower fusion zone and heataffected zone can be achieved by LWCFW as compared to HLGMA welding However the size of the gap in a butt joint in LWCFW is limited It was found that when a gap of about 1 mm is used in joining 663mmthick plates in a square butt joint with 4 kW of fiber laser power and a wire diameter of 09 mm an acceptable weld quality could be achievedThe financial support of NSF grant no IIP1034652 is acknowledged The authors would like to thank Mr Andrew Socha a research engineer at the Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing of Southern Methodist University for his assistance in performing the experiments
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