Fatigue behaviour of laser repairing welded joints

This paper presents a fatigue study in Nd-YAG laser surface repairing welded joints in specimens of two base materials used in mould production. The tests were carried out in a servo-hydraulic machine in tension, under constant amplitude loading, with two stress ratios R = 0 and R = 0.4. Welded specimens were prepared with U notches and filled with laser welding deposits. The fatigue results are presented in the form of S–N curves obtained in welded and non-welded conditions. Complementary measurements of hardness and residual stresses profiles were carried out along the surface of laser welded specimens to understand the observed fatigue behaviour. The melted material was the weaker region, with lower values of hardness and higher tensile residual stresses, presenting also a high number of defects that are potential failure sites. The presence of such defects can explain the relatively poor fatigue strength of the laser repairing joints in comparison to base materials.