Development of Deep Penetration Welding Technology with High Brightness Laser under Vacuum

The authors have developed a new chamber for laser welding under the low vacuum conditions achieved by using rotary pumps. High-power disk laser bead-on-plate welding was performed on Type 304 stainless steel or A5052 aluminium alloy plate at the powers of 10, 16 and 26 kW at various welding speeds under low vacuum. The sound welds of more than 50 and 70 mm in penetration depth could be produced in Type 304 at the pressure of 0.1 kPa, the speed of 0.3 m/min and the power of 16 kW and 26 kW, respectively. Similar penetration was achieved in A 5052 aluminum alloy. Welding phenomena under low vacuum were also understood by observing the behavior of a keyhole inlet, a molten pool, melt flows and a plume ejected from a keyhole through high speed video cameras. Low interaction between a laser beam and a plume under low vacuum was confirmed by using probe laser beam method.