Surface void suppression for pure copper by high-speed laser scanner welding

Welding of copper was conducted using a single-mode fiber laser rotated at a high speed by a galvano scanner. The rotation diameter and frequency were changed to investigate the effect of the beam rotation on the welding quality. The rotation diameter changed from 0.3 to 1.0 mm and the rotation frequency changed from 77 to 285 Hz. The weld depth obtained with scanning is smaller than that obtained without scanning. The weld depth decreases as rotation frequency increases, regardless of the rotation diameter. The bead width obtained with scanning is larger than that obtained without scanning because of the larger laser radiation area. In the welding there is an unscanned area, based on the relationship between laser scanning conditions and welding speed, that makes the weld depth periodic. It was found that welding geometry can be controlled by adjusting scanning parameters. Spatter and surface voids decrease as rotation frequency and diameter increase. It was confirmed a scanning speed over 500 mm/s suppressed large spatter and surface voids.