Effect of Cut Quality on Hybrid Laser Arc Welding of Thick Section Steels

From an industrial point of view, in a laser cutting-welding production chain, it is of great importance to know the influence of the attainable laser cut quality on the subsequent hybrid laser arc welding process. Many studies have been carried out in the literature to obtain lower surface roughness values on the laser cut edge. However, in practice, the cost and reliability of the cutting process is crucial and it does not always comply with obtaining the highest surface quality. In this study, a number of experiments on 25 mm steel plates were carried out to evaluate the influence of cut surface quality on the final quality of the subsequent hybrid laser welded joints. The different cut surfaces were obtained by different industrial cutting methods including laser cutting, abrasive water cutting, plasma cutting, and milling. It was found that the mentioned cutting methods could be used as preparation processes for the subsequent hybrid laser arc welding. However, cut quality could determine the choice of process parameters of the following hybrid laser arc welding.