LASER BEAM WELDING

Dr Olivier Allegre
 1. Welding processes
1.1. Conduction limited welding
• Laser is absorbed at surface (skin depth) and heat is transferred to the lower
part of the body entirely by conduction. Melting only ; no vaporization.
• The laser spot is scanned and the melt pool re-solidify behind it, joining the
two pieces together
• Power density < 105 W/cm2
• Advantage: low thermal damage
• Disadvantages: slow, low efficiency
• Hardly used for metal welding; sometimes used for thin plastic film welding.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 1.2. Deep penetration (keyhole) welding
• When laser power density > 106 W/cm2, fast vaporisation of materials
occurs.

• Vapour pressure ( Pv = RT/Vol ) causes the depression of molten materials

and formation of a keyhole (hole in the melt pool).

• The keyhole acts as a blackbody trapping the laser beam, allowing very
efficient laser-material energy transfer.

• Process similar to vaporization cutting, except the melt pool is not blown
away, but re-solidifies and joins the two sheets.

Relative motion
weld-pool / work-piece

Direction of
work-piece motion

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Recoil pressure:
• Up to 100 atmospheric pressure
• Temperature and pressure is highest at the bottom of the keyhole

Ripples:
• Natural frequency of membrane
• f : natural oscillation frequency (ripples)

f = 2.4 / ra

ra : radius of melt pool

Dr Olivier Allegre
 2. Experimental details

• Typical lasers: CO2 laser ; Fibre laser ; Nd:YAG laser.

Low order beam mode preferred. Continuous wave (CW) or
pulsed.

• Power: 400 W to 20 kW focused to spot diameter of 0.1 to 1mm.

Penetration depth: 1-2 mm/kW

• Welding speed of 5mm to 1m/s.

• Suitable Materials: nearly all materials suitable for arc welding are
also suitable for laser welding (including metals and ceramics).

• Thickness: 0.01mm to 50 mm. Normally below 20 mm for

lasers < 20 kW.
Dr Olivier Allegre
 • Shroud gas: He, Ar, CO2, N2

• Shroud gas pressure: atmospheric

• Shroud gas flowrate: 10-40 l/min

• Focal position: 0 -1 mm below surface

Side-nozzle to blow
the plasma away

Dr Olivier Allegre
 3. Plasma effects in laser welding
3.1. Plasma formation
• Metal vapour and shroud gas being broken down by laser into
positive ions and electrons - plasma cloud.

• When electron density reaches a critical value - avalanching

breakdown (large quantity of plasma).

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Saha equation:
 eVi
Ni
 A(T )  exp k T
N0
k T
A(T )  A 
P
Ni : ionisation density
N0 : density of neutral vapour
Vi : ionisation potential of the material, eV
T : temperature, K
k, e : Boltzmann constant and electronic charge.
A(T) : function of temperature T and pressure P
A : constant
P : vapour pressure

Note this is a simplified Saha’s equation. Full equation can be found for example in
Kawahito et al. J. Laser Appl. 21, 96 (2009).

Dr Olivier Allegre
 3.2. Ionisation potential threshold of materials

Materials Vi , (eV) Materials Vi , (eV)

O2 12.50 Aluminium 5.96

CO2 14.41 Chromium 6.74

N2 15.54 Nickel 7.61

Ar 15.68 Iron 7.83

He 24.46 Magnesium 7.61

Water Vapour 12.56 Manganese 7.41

Dr Olivier Allegre
 • Laser beam energy has to overcome ionisation potential to start
ionisation. Minimum of 106W/cm2 is required to generate breakdown.

• Conventional arc: 30000 V/cm (i.e. 109W/cm2 ) is required to

generate break down.

• The degree of ionisation is an exponential function of the material

energy level. Ionisation at comparable temperatures differs by order
of e2 between metals and gas. Metal ionises first.

• Plasma is a high speed, high temperature and high pressure (several

100 atmospheric) ionised gas that disturbs the beam absorption.
Therefore it should be avoided, but practically not possible.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 3.3. Effect of plasma formation on beam absorption
Plasma absorption: free-electron / photon interaction
 hv
32  ne ni Z 2 e 6 3
Kv    3/ 2 4
   (1  e kT )
27 kT hm c
Kv: plasma absorption coefficient to laser beam [cm -1]
1/Kv : absorption length [cm]
ne: electron density
ni: ion density
Z: average charge of plasma
T: average temperature of plasma
v: frequency of laser beam (v = c/)
: wavelength of laser beam
c: speed of light
e: electron charge
m: electron mass
h: Plank's constant
k: Boltzmann's constant

Thus, we have: K v  3
This means shorter wavelength result in less beam absorption by the plasma (i.e.
less plasma shielding of the work-piece), thus shorter wavelength are desirable
for laser
Dr Olivier welding.
Allegre
 3.4. Plasma interactions

3.4.1. Laser Supported Combustion (LSC)

Time t
t= t0

• 106 W/cm2 < Laser intensity < 107 W/cm2 for metals.

• The expansion of plasma is below sonic speed.

• Beam absorption by plasma up to 30% (absorption coefficient: 1-1.5

cm-1 which is over the length of plasma). Plasma is partially
transparent to laser beam.

• Plasma plume lenses the original laser beam

Dr Olivier Allegre
 • Plasma re-radiates energy in the form of light (UV for
metals)

• Plasma is confined to surface transfering energy to

workpiece by thermal conduction and radiation.

• Weld width increases and penetration reduces.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 3.4.2. Laser Supported Detonation (LSD)

Time t
t= t0

• Laser intensity > 107 W/cm2 for metals

• Plasma detaches from the surface travelling perpendicular to surface,

towards the laser, at speed of 105cm/s (supersonic)

Dr Olivier Allegre
 • Plasma is opaque to laser beam (Absorption length <0.1mm,
absorbing up to 50% of laser beam by inverse Bremsstrahlung) -
blocking the laser beam.
• It transfers energy to workpiece in the form of re-emitted light - in a
larger area than the beam spot size.
• Weld is disrupted and stopped.
• When expands, plasma density decreases enabling beam reaching the
workpiece - resulting in periodical plasma formation effects.
• If laser intensity > 108 W/cm2, plasma/vapour pressure is too high,
expulsion of molten materials (splattering) occurs. Beam may be
totally reflected.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 4. Quality of weld

Dr Olivier Allegre
 4.1. Qualitative analysis

4.1.1. Good Welds:

• Lap Weld

Direction of laser beam travel

• Butt Weld Top view:

Cross section:

Dr Olivier Allegre
 4.1.2. Poor welds:
Cross-
section
• Dropout

• Undercut

Cross-
section

• Hole formation / Open

cut

Top view

• Humping

Top view
Dr Olivier Allegre
 4.2. Porosity in Welds

• Laser lap welding of

Al alloy: effect of
leaving a gap
between the welded
sheets

• The gap allows

reduction in porosity
(at lower power)

No gap 0.2mm gap

Dr Olivier Allegre
 4.2. Porosity in Welds

Al alloy, 50 mm/s, 5300 W

• Laser lap welding of
Al alloy: effect of
filler material

• Al-Mg-Mn filler
reduces porosity and
improves tensile Al-Si5 filler wire Al-Mg-Mn filler wire
strength
5.2% Si 0.8-1.3% Mg, 1-1.5% Mn

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5. Welding process parameters

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.1. Weld penetration calculations:

• Thermal balance equation: P (1  rf )  VmaxWH  (C pTm  L f )

P: laser power
W: weld bead width
or
H: weld penetration depth
Vmax: maximum welding speed
P (1  rf )  VWH  (C pT  L f )
: density of the material
Cp: thermal capacity of the material
Tm: Melting point of the material
rf: reflectivity of the surface to laser bean (5% to 95%)
Lf: latent heat of fusion of the material
T: melt pool temperature

• To find welding parameters for a material:

• Approximation for weld penetration depth: H  P/V

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.1.1. Weld Penetration – Power Effect CO2 laser welding of steel

• For a given speed: H  P

i.e. H increases ~linearly with incident beam power P

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.1.1. Weld Penetration – Power Effect

• For a given speed: H  P

i.e. H increases ~linearly with incident beam power P

• Can you suggest a method to increase H without

changing the incident beam power or speed?

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.1.1. Weld Penetration – Power Effect

• For a given speed: H  P

i.e. H increases ~linearly with incident beam power P

• H can also be increased by increasing power density

without changing the incident beam power. This is
simply achieved by reducing the focal length of the
lens

• Suitable power density for welding:

*106 -107 W/cm2 for keyhole welding of metals.
i.e. focal spot diameter < 1 mm, with multi-kW laser Note: increasing
power. power density for a
given incident laser
*103-105 W/cm2 for conductive limited welding. power would produce
the same increase in H

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.1.2. Weld Penetration – Processing speed

• For a given power: H  1/V thus

weld penetration can be increased by
decreasing speed.

• Too high a speed causes humping

and undercut, no weld.

• Low speed causes high HAZ and

porosity (plasma density increases)

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.2. Roles and effect of process/assist gas:

Purpose:
To cool and blow away the plasma
To protect melt pool and hot work-piece from atmospheric
contamination and oxidation.
To protect the laser optics from metal vapour.
It affects:
a) Porosity of the weld
b) Absorption coefficient (oxygen)
c) Weld pool melt flow patterns (change the temperature coefficient
of surface tension)
d) Plasma density by gas ionisation and cooling/blow.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.2.1. Types of assist gas and suitability for welding materials

CO2 gas: increases absorption by generating FeO (steel welding), TiO2

(titanium alloy welding) or other oxides at high temperature. These oxides
may cause corrosion issues, thus CO2 process gas is not good for steel
and titanium alloy welding. Furthermore, it has low ionisation threshold,
thus producing more plasma - which is bad.
N2 gas: low cost, but has low ionisation threshold, thus easy to be ionised -
not so good. Furthermore, Ti-alloys are very sensitive to N2 and to form
nitride. Thus N2 is not good for Ti-alloy welding.
Ar gas: heavy (good for shroud) but low ionisation threshold.
He gas: light (bad for shroud), expensive, highest ionisation threshold of
all, which means it is good for high welding penetration depth.
Optimum gas: high ionisation threshold (He) for plasma prevention but
heavy gas (Ar) for good shroud and low cost (N2 or air). Perhaps a
mixture. (10% O2 can increase beam absorption but increases oxidation)
Note: pure O2 is not used for welding to avoid oxidation
Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.2.2. Weld Penetration – Effect of assist gas

ST52-3: Structural steel: C< 0.22, Si< 0.55, Mn < 1.6

CO2 laser
• At 2kW incident power, He assist gas
almost doubles penetration depth
compared with Ar.
• At lower power <1kW, or higher
welding speed > 4m/min, type of assist
gas does not influence penetration depth.
Ar or N2 are preferred (due to lower
cost).
• At longer wavelength (i.e. CO2 laser),
the assist gas strongly influences welding
penetration depth, thus He is preferred.
• At shorter wavelength (Nd:YAG, Fiber
laser) the assist gas has less influence on
welding depth, thus cheaper gas is
preferred, such as Ar or N2.
Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.2.3. Gas flowrate

•Typically around 10-40 l/min

• If too low: Plasma shielding causes low penetration and porosity formation.
• If too high: gas flow widens and keyhole reducing the multiple reflection
effect thus reducing the beam absorption. Also produces humping weld
• Direction of gas blow: Coaxial or angles to surface > 40°

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.3. Effect of Focal Position
Focusing position:
Weld penetration and width
•Weld penetration depth and width are a affected by versus focus position
focus position:
cm

Where would you focus

the laser beam to
maximise penetration
depth H ?

cm
cm

Dr Olivier Allegre
 5.3. Effect of Focal Position
Focusing position: ideally 0 to 1 mm below the surface
Weld penetration and width
•Weld penetration depth and width are a affected by versus focus position
focus position:
cm

Weld penetration is
increased by adjusting
the focal position
0.5~1mm below surface

cm
cm

•Focusing above surface leads to poor weld quality

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6. Materials

6.1. Steels
6.1.1. Overview
• Excellent weld
• Higher tensile strength compared to parent material
• High aspect ratio: up to 12 to 1 (depth/width)
• Corrosion resistance is not affected or improved

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6.1.2. Behaviour of steel under laser welding
•Very good quality welds can be achieved provided sulphur and phosphorus
low levels.
•High carbon steel requires care to avoid weld cracking. Preheat can be used
to avoid cracking.
•Low alloy steels can be welded but hardness may be a problem, an lead to
cracking. Preheat can be used to avoid cracking.
•Austenitic and ferritic stainless steels weld well, but martensitic steels develop
brittle and hard behaviour.
•Zinc coated (galvanized) sheets can be welded. Zinc vapour will be produced,
which could cause porosity issues. Care needs to be taken with regard to
porosity issues. For example, leaving a gap between the welded sheets.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Welding Zn Coated Steel

Gap g helps
evaporation of
Zn vapour and
avoid porosity

tp: sheet thickness

tzn: is Zn coating thickness
V: welding speed
ρs, ρL, ρv: solid, liquid and vapour density
Dr Olivier Allegre g: gradational acceleration
 6.1.3. Summary of welding property for various lasers

MATERIAL CO2 Nd:YAG/Fibre

Carbon steel Excellent Fair, good
Low carbon Excellent Good
Medium carbon Good Good
High carbon Excellent Bad, fair
Stainless 304 Good Good
Stainless 316 Good Excellent
Stainless 440C Good Fair
Zinc coated Good Fair

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6.2. Aluminium and its alloys:

6.2.1. Welding Al alloys presents a number of challenges:

- High reflectivity (~95% of incident power is reflected in most cases) thus low beam
absorption and causes back reflection to damage laser optics and beam mode.
- High thermal conductivity and presence of Mg in aluminium alloys resulting in
solidification crack.
- Porosity generation due to evolution of gas (H2) from surface oxidation layer.
- Lower joints tensile strength (75%) compared to parent material.
- Low melting temperature and high fluidity cause dropout of weld seam
As a result, laser welds of aluminium alloy
can have poor quality: caution is necessary
if high reliability is required

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6.2.2. To overcome these challenges, an number of methods can be used:
• Increasing beam absorption and reduce back reflection:
- Using shorter wavelength laser source (for example ~1μm)
- High intensity (>107W/cm2) to overcome reflectivity.
- Tilting surface to Brewster’s angle and use p-polarized beam.
- Tilting surface (2-5°) to prevent back reflection.
- Using surface coating (graphite) or sand-blasting to increase
absorbtivity.
• Reduce dropout and porosity (due to fluidity and oxidation):
- Filler wire (eg.Al-Si) to modify the composition and microstructure.
- Mixed beam (e.g. with an Excimer laser) processing to remove oxidation layer
• Prevent cracking:
- Preheating (up to 773°K) of the workpiece to prevent cracking

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6.2.3. Summary of welding property for various lasers
MATERIAL CO2 Nd:YAG/fibre

Alloy series 1000 Fair good Good

Alloy series 2000 Fair good Good

Alloy series 3000 Bad good Fair good
Alloy series 4000 Fair n.i
Alloy series 5000 Good Good
Alloy series 6000 Fair good Good
Alloy series 7000 Bad fair Fair good
Alloy series 8000 n.i Fair

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6.3. Titanium and its alloys:

MATERIAL CO2 Nd:YAG Good quality welds with

Pure Titanium Good Good fine grains and structure.
Ti6A14V Excellent Excellent Material cleaning prior
Ti6242 Good Good to welding is essential.
Weld pool shielding is
essential

Dr Olivier Allegre
 6.4. Summary of welding properties of metals:

Laser welding characterises for different alloys

Alloy Notes
Steels Good quality welds can be achieved. For zinc-coated
steel, porosity can be an issue.

Al Alloys Problems with: 1) Reflectivity. 2) Porosity. 3)

Excessive fluidity – leads to drop out.

Ti Alloys Better than non-laser welding processes, due to less

grain growth

Dr Olivier Allegre
 7. Joint design for laser beam welding

There are four main types of

welds:

, or spot weld

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Welding of cylindrical parts may require specific geometries

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Designing a laser welding process also involves design
of a jig to provide suitable clamp force !

Dr Olivier Allegre
 8. Quality assessment of laser weld
Strength: tensile, fatigue, fracture and bend testing
Corrosion resistance: acid etching
Porosity: X-ray, ultrasonic, eddy current, neutron diffraction,
contour, cut and microscope
HAZ: visual or microscopic
Distortion and surface roughness: contact (e.g. Talysurf) or
non-contact (laser triangulation) surface profiler.
Weld uniformity (cutting, humping, under cut, ropy head) :
visual inspection
Crack: Microscope or dye penetration
Weld penetration and geometry: cut, etch and microscope
Weld zone microstructure: cut, etch and microscope

Dr Olivier Allegre
 9. Comparison of various welding techniques
Relative Capital Cost of a Laser
Facility
Process Capital Cost in Relative units

Manual Metal Arc (MMA) 1

Submerged Arc (SAW) 10
Electroslag 20+
TIG 2
Microplasma 20+
MIG 2
Resistance (Butt) 0.5-10
Oxy/Fuel 0.2
Electron Beam (EB) 10-450
Friction 4-100
Laser 100+

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Comparison with conventional welding techniques

Ultrasonic
Micro plasma
2kW Laser
Resistance
Plasma
TIG
Oxy-acetylene
20kW Laser
MMA
5kW EB
25kW EB
SAW
Electroslag
1 10 100
Thickness [mm]

With multi pass welding

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Table 4.4 Comparison of Welding Processes
Quality Laser EB TIG Resistance Ultrasonic
Rate   X  X
Low heat input   X  
Narrow HAZ   X 
Weld bead appearance   X 
Simple fixturing  X X
Equipment reliability  X  
Deep penetration X  X
Welding in air  X 
Weld magnetic materials  X   
Weld reflective material X    
Weld heat sensitive mat   X X 
Joint access  X X
Environment, noise, fume   X X X
Equipment costs X X 

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Advantages of laser welding:
. non-contact
. high precision
. high speed
. no contamination
. no electrical/magnetic interference
. narrow heat affected zone
. atmospheric operation
. no filler materials required
. high tensile strength
. high depth/width ratio

Disadvantages:
. Less penetration depth compared to electron beam
welding due to plasma formation in laser welding
. Higher capital cost, low efficiency.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 10. Applications

1973: Welding stainless steel tube (100m to 200m wall

thickness) for hypodermic needles using a 450W CO 2 laser by
K-tube in San Diego

1975: double glazing space bar (Al) by All Metal, Illinois

1980: Continues (coil length of 30 miles) laser welding of

sheath for optical fibres

1985: laser welding of car body, aeroplane frame, cans, razors.

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Applications: automotive industry
Self-positioning K-joint: replaces resistance spot welding to join sheet metal flanges or lap joints.
Small depressions are stamped at intervals along a joint contour to serve as part locators and to
locate the weld seam. The K-joint can be welded from both sides.

Before After
welding welding

Laser welding a crown wheel to a differential housing

Efficient design + laser welding = weight reduction

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Applications: automotive industry
Tailored blank welding: flat sheets made of multiple steel sheets are
butt-welded. The steel sheets may have different thicknesses and
different steel grades. After welding, the blanks are press-formed into
components.
Example: car ground plate

Dr Olivier Allegre
 Application: Li-ion battery cells
30 cells are connected in parallel. Each cell is located within a liquid-tight
steel can which contains a cooling fluid. Copper current collectors needs
to be welded in overlap on the top of the steel cans.
Electrical resistivity needs to be low Fraunhofer Institute for Laser
Technology ILT, Aachen, Germany
Mechanical strength needs to be high
The connection has to be liquid tight
Micro-welding of a 0.3 mm thick nickel-plated DC04 steel part (battery
can) to a 0.2 mm thick copper alloy CuSn6 sheet (current collector)
P. Heinen et al,
Laser micro-welding
of copper on Li-ion
battery cells
Proc. Matador 2015

Dr Olivier Allegre