Laser Welding of Large Scale Stainless Steel Aircraft Structures

In this paper a welding process for large scale stainless steel structures is presented. The process was developed according to the requirements of an aircraft application. Therefore, stringers are welded on a skin sheet in a t-joint configuration. The 0.6 mm thickness parts are welded with a thin disc laser, seam length up to 1920 mm are demonstrated. The welding process causes angular distortions of the skin sheet which are compensated by a subsequent laser straightening process. Based on a model straightening process parameters matching the induced welding distortion are predicted. The process combination is successfully applied to stringer stiffened specimens.