Materials and Design 56 (2014) 2630

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Technical Report

Laser shock welding of aluminum/aluminum and aluminum/copper plates

Xiao Wang , Chunxing Gu, Yuanyuan Zheng, Zongbao Shen, Huixia Liu
School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang 212013, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
This work describes an advanced technique for metal welding and composite production, namely laser shock welding. A series of laser shock welding experiments were conducted to verify the welding ability of aluminum/aluminum and aluminum/copper plates. Two kinds of interface morphologies were observed by metallographic investigation on cross-sections of the joint areas, including the linear and wavy interfaces. Besides, micro-hardness testing results show the welded interface has a much greater hardness than the base metals. The lap shearing test was used to characterize the joint. According to the experimental results, it can be imply that this kind of technique shares the same bonding mechanism with explosive welding and magnetic welding. Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 18 August 2013 Accepted 31 October 2013 Available online 8 November 2013

1. Introduction With the rapid development of the automotive and aircraft industries, the increasing demands in a number of industries are putting forward higher requirements for welding technology [1,2], especially for joining a wide variety of both similar and dissimilar metals. Shock welding is one of the best ways to meet these demands [3]. The shock welding is well known for its capability to directly join a wide variety of both similar and dissimilar combinations of metals that cannot be bonded by the traditional methods. The technology can minimum the formation of intermetallic phases and the heat affected zone generated after welding the dissimilar metals [4,5]. Generally, there are two types of shock welding technologies, namely explosive welding (EXW) and magnetic pulse welding (MPW) [6,7]. Explosive welding has been raised since 1950th, and it has been put into practical use recently [8]. A lot of researches have been done on the subject [9,10]. Magnetic pulse welding was rst put forwarded in 1960th [11], but researchers did not pay much attention to it until 1990th with the great development of the automotive and aircraft industries [12]. These two types of shock welding technologies share the same basic mechanism. However, they are suitable for different cases. Explosion welding method would be an ideal technology to weld large size dissimilar materials, while the magnetic pulse welding is suitable for welding the dissimilar materials at smaller length scales [13,14]. The above two methods would not be good choices when the yer plate is nonconductive or some small and thin materials are needed (such as microdevices in the micro-electronics industry). Daehn and Lippold found that laser shock welding
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 051188797998; fax: +86 051188780276.
E-mail addresses: wx@ujs.edu.cn (X. Wang), chunxinggu@hotmail.com (C. Gu).

can be used to weld similar or dissimilar metal pairs in the millimeter scale [3,15]. They carried out the experiments with different materials, including aluminum alloy 1100 and low carbon steel 1010. Both of the aluminum to aluminum and aluminum to low carbon steel plates were also successfully welded. It is quite different from laser beam welding which has liquid pool along the welding line. It is regarded as a potential but immature method because the process is extremely complicated. Since different metal couples about yer plates and base plates would result in different physical characteristics of welded samples, a lot of further studies are required. In this paper, aluminum/aluminum and aluminum/copper plates were welded together by laser shock welding. Two kinds of interface morphologies were observed by metallographic investigation on cross-sections of the joint areas, including the linear and wavy interfaces. Besides, the micro-hardness of joint areas were measured and discussed. The strengths for welded samples were also tested by lap shearing test. 2. Mechanism of laser shock welding As shown in Fig. 1, the typical application of laser shock welding process is carried out under a conned regime conguration. The yer plate surface is covered by a transparent overlay (such as K9 glass). When a high-energy focused and pulsed laser beam is irradiated onto the surface of the yer plate, a part of the yer plate surface is instantaneously vaporized into a high-temperature and high-pressure plasma. This plasma absorbs the incident laser energy and will act as the working uid to propel the remaining yer plate at a high speed toward the base plate. While the gas discharges between the metals due to the high speed impact of yer plate on the base plate, various forms of energy transfer,

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.10.091

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absorption, transformation and distribution occur on the contact surface repeatedly. Plasma jet is generated between yer plate and base plate. The jet removes surface oxide layer and brings the two clean surfaces joint together by the oblique impact. Finally, a thin layer at the interface forms by plastic deformation of metals, melting and diffusion between the atoms makes two metals strongly welded. Laser shock welding process is completed in an instant since the release of laser energy and the metal system of transmission, absorption, transformation and distribution are completed in microseconds [3]. The impact angle and the standoff distance can be adjusted by simple geometric variations. Besides, the nal velocity of the yer plate is affected by laser energy. It seems laser shock welding can be tuned to produce shock welding for almost arbitrarily small foil thicknesses and length scales. 3. Experimental procedures In the experiments, a Nd YAG-GAIA R laser with Gaussian distribution beam was used. It was operated at the repetition frequency of 1 Hz and the pulse duration was about 10 ns. The wavelength of 1064 nm was selected for the experiment. The laser pulse was conducted to the interaction area by means of a reecting mirror, as shown in Fig. 2(a). In order to get the desired spot size (about 6 mm), the work piece was placed away from the focus at the proper distance. The samples were cut from commercially supplied aluminum and copper sheets and used as the yer and base plates in the experiment, respectively. The dimensions of the yer and base plate for experiment were 2 mm 0.6 mm 0.1 mm and 2 mm 1.5 mm 0.1 mm, respectively. Anhydrous alcohol was adopted to clean the surface of samples. K9 glass of 3 mm in thickness was used as the transparent overlay to conne the generated plasma. In the laser shock welding process, the impact angle (the angle between the yer plate and the base plate) should be guaranteed. As shown in Fig. 2(b), a special xture was designed for holding the samples to achieve above goals. The impact angle was designed as 20. It would be easy to obtain a tilt angle with the help of xture. Some key experimental conditions and specimen parameters are summarized in Table 1. 4. Experimental results and discussions 4.1. Welded samples The changes in the impact energies and characteristics of the metals (such as the strength of metal) would lead to the generation of different shapes of waveform at the bonding zone. During the shock welding process, a large plastic deformation can be generated at the interface zone after the yer plate is propelled toward

Fig. 2. (a) The layout of experiment, and (b) the set-up of experiment.

Table 1 The detailed experimental conditions and specimen parameters. Parameters Materials (yer/target) Flyer plate thickness (mm) Base plate thickness (mm) Energy (J) Impact angle () Spot diameter (mm) Value Al/Al, Al/Cu 0.1 0.1 3.2, 3.4, 3.6, 3.8, 4.0, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.6, 4.8, 5.0 20 6

the base plate at a high velocity by the laser induced plasma. Meanwhile, the plastic shear would contribute to the generation of heat. As a result, the temperature along the interface would increase, resulting in a heat affected zone at the welding area. Due to the plastic deformation, the increased temperature in the interface zone usually does not reach the melting point of metals. As shown in Fig. 3, it is interesting to note that only a small heat affected zone existed at the interface zone, which is benecial for welding. No vast melting phenomenon at the interface zone can be observed. Laser shock welding is regarded as a process without inducing large heat affect zones or changes to the bulk material. Table 2 shows the results of the experiments with different energies. It can be found that some good welding results can be obtained when the energy is ranging from 3.8 J to 4.2 J. With the suitable energy, the good welding can be obtained by laser shock welding. 4.2. Wavy characterization The resulting welding interfaces of AL/Cu and AL/AL indicate wavy morphology, as shown in Fig. 4. For dissimilar metal couples (AL/Cu), it can be found that the interface is nearly at and the waves are more symmetric. The result is the same with the result presented by Zhangs research group for the welding of aluminum alloy 1100 and low carbon steel 1010 [3]. It is assumed that the similar wavy features can be obtained when dissimilar metal couples are welded. For similar metal couples (AL/AL), some uniform wavy structures (even the vortex shedding wave) were observed.

Fig. 1. The mechanism of laser shock welding.

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Fig. 3. Welded samples in the experiment.

Table 2 The results of the experiments with different energy. Energy (J) 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 + 4.0 + + 4.2 s + 4.4 s s 4.6 h s 4.8 h h 5.0 h h

Materials (yer/target) Al/Al Al/Cu

Notes: (1) : failed to be welded; (2) +: joint with good effect; (3) s: joint with the melting surface; (4) h: joint with the ablation surface.

Fig. 4. (a) and (b) Al/Cu wavy interface morphology; (c) and (d) Al/Al wavy interface morphology.

This kind wavy morphology is also observed by Zhangs research group [3]. One reason for the different phenomenon between the dissimilar and similar metal couples may be explained as follows: the different properties of the welded metals, such as density, melting point and hardness, may affect the nal wavy characterization. The material properties of copper and aluminum are not same, which may lead to some uniform and asymmetry wave characterizations in the interface zone. It is also interesting to point out that the interface of the similar metal couples (AL/AL) is relatively at. And, the intermetallic phases are largely absent as the yer plate and the base plate share the same material properties. From the observation of the interface of the bonding zone, it can be seen that the technology is similar to the technologies of the explosion welding and magnetic pulse welding in bonding mechanisms. The wavy morphology increases the intimate contact area and aid interlocking between two metal surfaces. It would lead to a strong bonding.

4.3. Hardness During laser shock welding process, a certain degree of plastic deformation is generated in the bonding area, especially at the interface zone of two metals. In addition, the various degrees of plastic deformation also occur from the surface to the bottom of the material. It would contribute to the enhancement of the strength and hardness of metals. These changes can be used to reect the physical and chemical changes of laser shock welding process. Therefore, the value of the micro-hardness can be used to reect the plastic deformation. The average Vickers micro-hardness (HV) values measured in the interface region are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. As seen from Fig. 5, in the case of welding dissimilar metal couples, it can be found that the hardness of measured zone increases as the distance from the interface of samples decreases. As shown in Fig. 6, the same distribution rules of hardness can also be observed in the case of welding similar metal couple. It seems that the interfacial

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Fig. 5. Distribution of micro-hardness in welding zone of Al/Cu.

Fig. 6. Distribution of micro-hardness in welding zone of Al/Al.

Fig. 7. (a) Illustration of lap shearing test; (b) the forcetime curves when different laser energies were employed to weld aluminium/aluminium plates, and (c) fracture of lap shearing tests.

hardness is higher than that of the base metals in the process of laser shock welding. The reason for the increase of the interfacial hardness is mainly due to the local plastic deformation caused by oblique impact. As the distance from the interface increases, the plastic deformation becomes smaller, hence resulting in the decrease of hardness. From Figs. 5 and 6, it can be found that the values of the nal hardness of the bonding zone are higher than the original one. One explanation can be expressed as follows: when the yer plate impacts the base plate with high speed, as the base plate is xed by xture, the interaction will also occur between the base plate and xture. It leads to the increase of the surface hardness. However, the in-

creased hardness value is not very large, the greatest hardness value at the interface zone just increases 20% than the original one. In fact, the distribution of the hardness represents the plastic deformation level of the corresponding position in the material. Besides, other reasons for this increase phenomenon in interface zone can be expressed as follows: laser shock welding is regarded as a process with high temperature, high pressure and high strain rate, the bonding area will cool down with extremely high speed, which seems like experiencing a quenching process. It leads to the increase of micro-hardness. Therefore, shock welding can hold the opportunity to produce welds with much greater joint efciencies.

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4.4. Lap shearing test In our study, the mechanical properties of the joint were characterized at room temperature using lap shearing test. The mechanical tests were carried out three times for each group. These are made according to the EN ISO 527-1:2012 [16]. And the test setup is illustrated in Fig. 7(a). The lap shearing test is examined by using a controlled electronic universal testing machine (Instron Type UTM 4104). The applied load generates shear stress on the welded region with shearing area (A0) about 22.59 mm2. The load (F) and displacement were recorded during test. Fig. 7(b) shows the forcetime curves when different laser energies were employed to weld aluminum/ aluminum plates. These two forcetime curves do not coincide each other, but, the trend of the curves is the same. As shown in Fig. 7(b), the maximum load force (F) is about 256 N. The joint strength (MPa) is calculated by load dividing the shearing area (F/A0). According to the experimental results, it can be found that the obtained welded samples have the limited shear strength (about 11.33 MPa). Additionally, it was interesting to point out that the fracture of the lap shearing test was on the welded zone as shown in Fig. 7(c). It is assumed that the low strength of welded zone are the reason of fracture. Besides, the same results were also observed when different laser energies were employed to weld aluminum/copper plates. Therefore, it is still required to do further research to increase the weld strength after laser shock welding. 5. Conclusions The study shows that laser shock welding is a feasible method to weld metals of small size with proper impact angle and energy. It can be applied to weld similar and dissimilar materials. Metallographic observations on cross-sections show that the interface for dissimilar metal couples (AL/Cu) is nearly at and the waves are more symmetric. Besides, for similar metal couples (AL/AL), some uniform wavy structures were observed. The wavy morphology increases the intimate contact area and aid interlocking between two metal surfaces. It would lead to strong bonding. Micro-hardness testing results show the shock welding interface has much greater hardness than the base metals. However, the lap shearing testing results show the weldments have the limited strength after laser shock welding. Therefore, it is still required to do further research to increase the weld strength after laser shock welding. To sum up, laser shock welding is regarded as a process of producing metallurgical bonds between both similar and dissimilar metal pairs. It seems that the technology shares the physical principle that general impact-driven welding can be carried out by oblique impact. Besides, the interface zone is cleaned by jet.

The jet removes surface oxide layer and the oblique impact will make the two clean surfaces welded together. It is similar to the explosive welding and magnetic welding in bonding mechanism. Such a technique is simple to implement, yet very useful for applications involving welding both similar and dissimilar combinations of metals. However, a lot of further modeling and experimental work are required before it can be adopted for industrial application. Acknowledgments This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51175235) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu province (No. BK2012712). References
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