Mechanical Properties of Fibre Laser Welded AZ31B Sheets and their Dependence on the Spot-Size

Abstract

In the present work the mechanical behaviour of laser beam welded AZ31B alloy was studied, by changing systematically the spot size of the used fibre laser system between 200 µm and 1000 µm at different power levels between 2 kW and 8 kW. Maximum welding velocities with respect to imperfections were determined. The characterization of the obtained welds - in terms of Vickers hardness, UTS, Af and weld width, resp. weld area - was correlated with the micro-texture in dependence of the different Focus Spot Diameters and Laser Beam Power levels as well as the resulting cooling rates. Highest UTS of 94% of the base material was achieved with 200 µm Focus Spot Diameter and Laser Beam Power of 4 kW at welding velocity of 100 mm/s. By increasing the Focus Spot Diameter to 600 µm, the tensile strength was reduced to 86 % of the actual strength of the base material.