Post-Weld Residual Stress Mitigation by Scanning of a Defocused Laser Beam

High welding residual stresses can cause service life reducing consequences. Even though many processes have been developed to reduce these stresses, they are only applicable for wider welds and simple component geometries or are cost-intensive, respectively. The presented method uses a defocused beam after welding for heating the material regions on both sides of the weld. In this way, the welding stresses are decreased without contacting the surfaces using the available equipment. Different process parameters could be used depending on the component geometry and the laser power. The mechanism and the influence of the process parameters were investigated by FEM-simulation and experiments on S355J2+N steel and showed a stress reduction of about 73%.