Title: An experimental study on CO₂ laser beam welding of AISI 304SS and Cu dissimilar pipes

Authors: Sushanta Kumar Sahu; Bikash Ranjan Moharana; V.B. Shaibu; Susanta Kumar Sahoo

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, 769008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, 769008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, 769008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, 769008, India

Abstract: Effect of process parameters such as laser power and welding speed on CO₂ laser beam welding (LBW) of commercially pure copper (Cu) pipes with AISI 304 stainless steel (SS) pipes is investigated in the present study. Laser power is varied from 1.5 to 3.5 kW; heat source velocity/scan speed is varied from 0.72 to 4.5 m/min; and beam diameter is maintained at 0.18 mm operating in Gaussian mode. The microstructural developments and mechanical properties of the welded samples are investigated. It is observed that acceptable microhardness values, across the weld pool and along the depth direction have been obtained, and those are found to be related to the temporal continuation and quenching of plasma. The mechanical properties in terms of tensile stress realised values up to 286.232 MPa and the fracture was observed to be outside the weld zone. The growth of keyhole phenomena has been simulated and compared with experiment.

Keywords: AISI 304 SS; copper pipes; stainless steel pipes; cracking; dissimilar metal welding; laser welding; microscopy; precipitation; CO2 LBW; carbon dioxide; laser beam welding; dissimilar metals; laser power; welding speed; microstructure; microhardness; tensile stress; fracture; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2016.082862

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2016 Vol.9 No.4, pp.310 - 326

Received: 29 Jul 2015
Accepted: 23 Mar 2016
Published online: 14 Mar 2017 *

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