ステンレス鋼の高輝度ファイバーレーザ溶接現象の解明

抄録

A high-brigthness fiber laser can produce an ultra-high peak power density of MW/mm² level corresponding to a focused electron beam, and is promising as one of the desirable heat sources for deep-penetration welding. The objectives of this research are to elucidate the factors affecting weld penetration and defects formation mechanisms, to obtain a fundamental knowledge of interaction between a fiber laser beam and the laser-induced plume, and to assess laser absorption with water-calorimetric method in bead-on-plate welding of Type 304 austenitic stainless steel plates with a 10 kW fiber laser beam. Concerning the weldablity and defects, the penetration depth reached 18 mm at the maximum. At 50 mm/s or lower welding speeds, porosity was generated under the conventionally-focused and tightly-focused conditions. X-ray transmission in-site observation images demonstrated that pores were formed not only at the tip of the keyhole but also near the upper part. The keyhole behavior was stabilized by using nitrogen shielding gas, which led to the porosity prevention. As for the interaction under the normal Ar shielding gas conditions, the temperature and ionization degree of the laser-induced plumes were calculated to be 6,000 K and 0.02, respectively, by the Bolzman plots and Saha's equation. It was also found that the attenuation and the refraction between the 10-kW fiber laser beam and the short weakly-ionized plume were too small to exert the reduction in weld penetration. The laser absorption of the stainless steel plate was approximately 85 % high at 10 kW laser power and 50 mm/s welding speed. Compared X-ray transmission observation images of the keyhole with the focusing feature of the fiber laser beam, most of the incident laser passed through the keyhole inlet, and the center part of the beam was delivered directly to the tip of the deep keyhole. Consequently, as far as the adquate welding procedures were utilized on the basis of eclucidation of the welding phenomena, 10 kW high-brightness fiber laser welding, which can produce sound welds, was confirmed to be one of the highest-quality, high-efficiency processes owing to a small effect of weakly-ionized plume and deep keyhole with a sufficient inlet for the incident laser beam absorption.