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Optics & Laser Technology 42 (2010) 9398

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Optics & Laser Technology

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

Dual beam method for laser welding of galvanized steel: Experimentation and prospects
Salman Iqbal a,,1, Muddassir M.S. Gualini b, Ateeq ur Rehman c
a

Electronics Engineering Department, International I University, Islamabad, Pakistan Electronics Engineering Department, Polytechnico di Torino, Turin, Italy c Department of Applied Physics, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences & Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
b

a r t i c l e in fo
Article history: Received 21 October 2008 Received in revised form 4 May 2009 Accepted 6 May 2009 Available online 21 June 2009 Keywords: Laser beam Laser welding Galvanized steel

abstract
Laser welding of zinc-coated steel sheets in lap conguration poses a challenging problem, because of the zinc vapours spoiling the quality of the weld. In continuation to the earlier work, the novel solution of dual laser beam method for lap welding of galvanized steel sheets is discussed here in view of the recently obtained observations and ensuing concerns. In this method the precursor beam cuts a slot, thus making an exit path for the zinc vapours, while the second beam performs the needed welding. The metallurgical analysis of the welds is encouraging showing absence of zinc in the welded area. In the current work on this technique, new experimental results have been obtained verifying the earlier observations. Along with this, the possibility of using a transversely split-up beam for the welding purposes with this approach is discussed and analyzed in this paper. This new technique is expected to be very useful in prospective industrial applications requiring higher welding throughput along with the needed quality. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Welding of zinc-coated steel sheets in lap conguration poses a challenging problem to the researchers [1]. As per the results of earlier works, the solutions proposed in the last many years have not yet found an economical and easy-to-apply realization to replace conventional methods [2]. The obvious advantages offered by laser welding still justify a quest for a proper solution. The ideal solution should primarily solve the technological problem of the residual zinc vapours trapped in the welded region due to the lower boiling point of the zinc (907 1C) with respect to melting point of steel (near to the same for Fe, 1530 1C). The solution should also be practical and economical enough to be installed on the production lines [1,2]. Some researchers have studied the aws in the produced welds of the galvanized steel in detail [3]. In order to solve this problem, researchers have tried to reduce them as much as possible through bare optimization of the welding parameters and by blowing away the residual vapours [4]. Perhaps the most obvious of the methods may well be the prior removal of zinc coating. This method can obviously yield good results [5], but is cumbersome to implement on the oor and is thus impractical.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +92 51 9257949; fax: +92 51 9252855.

1

E-mail address: salmaniqbal1@yahoo.com (S. Iqbal). Dr. Salman Iqbal is now back on his job with Govt. of Pakistan.

Another possibility of welding the galvanized sheets in the edge lap conguration was presented which avoids trapping of zinc vapours in the welding keyhole but of course it comes to be unduly restrictive [1]. There have been suggestions of chemical methods including those adding some material, e.g. aluminum, on the zinc coating, but their implementation convenience is still to be established [6]. As a simpler solution, the welding process has been tried with pulsed lasers and it has been observed that the weld quality is improved but still the improvement is not up to the mark, i.e. some porosity has been found to be inevitable, which increases with the increase in the welding speed [3,7]. The twin-beam method [2,8] has been used which is of course more expensive with the use of either two sources or a split-up higher power source. But the limitations may well be encountered in its applications with different types of geometry and shape contours of the processed job. Probably a more well-known technique in this area is that of adding shims or forced gap between the sheets when welding in lap conguration. This method delivers impressive results [9], but at the same time, it needs time-taking pre-arrangements and may become cumbersome on the oor [2]. Anyhow such techniques have already been in use and have been patented too [10]. In view of the need of a more practical solution, the presented work is actually a further extrapolation and verication of the dual beam solution presented earlier [11,12]. In this new dual tandem beams method, the front beam cuts a slot in both the

0030-3992/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.optlastec.2009.05.009

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sheets with a minimal gap, thus making an exit path for the zinc vapours to-be-trapped during welding. The second beam following closely on the rear normally welds both the sheets, while joining the two edges of the slot too. This way part of the zinc may well be dispensed during the cutting process; while the residual zinc trapped between the plates conveniently evaporates during welding through the slot carved in its front, instead of spoiling the weld pool. The shielding gas ow may also help in blowing the vapour exhaust away and researchers have shown earlier how this parameter can also be optimally adjusted for different conditions [13]. In the earlier work, theoretical and mathematical treatment of this method has been presented after the general overview of the scheme. Needed width of the cut slot has been plotted against different contributing parameters. In the experimental part, the microscopic views of the outcomes of some basic experiments have been given. A basic comparison with other schemes is also presented [11,12]. As implementation, it is proposed that the Nd:YAG and CO2 lasers can be used in tandem, with the rst for cutting and the second for welding. Alternatively two beams from the same CO2 laser source can be optically split and may also be used in tandem. The method may be viewed as an enhanced integration of the gap-method proposed many years ago [9] and the twin-beam method given few years back [2]. The given solution is described in Fig. 1. Looking at its approach, following may be the major benets of the dual laser beam scheme presented here.

2. Theory and calculations As per the detailed mathematical model of this technique developed earlier [11], the ferro-static head DP12 on top of the weld pool generates a pressure that stops the zinc vapours from getting into the keyhole and they are alternately exhausted by the cut slot in front providing an articial exhaust route. The exhaust velocity v2 of the zinc vapours is calculated using Bernoullis theorem, and thus

DP12 rFe g e tp a,
v2 s 2DP 12 .

(1)

rv

(2)

Here rFe is the iron density, ge is acceleration due to gravity, tp is the thickness of the steel plate and a is the wave factor or indication of non-regularity in the height of ferro-static head in the weld pool, which is normalized to 1 for simplication [9]. Vapour density rv0 is calculated using ClausiusClapeyron equation to be rv 21.87 kg/m3 [14]. The following equations express the respective ows (m3/s) of vapours that can be exhausted through the gap, in this case the slot present in the middle of the to-be-molten area having zinc on both sides, as well as those generated by the welding action as Flowgen 2t Zn V rs w g 2b

rv

(3) (4)

Flowexh 4v2 t Zn w. 1. Dual laser beam method offers a promising practical solution for the welding of galvanized steel sheets in lap conguration. 2. The solution is easier to implement as it does not need any pre-processing or pre-arrangement with additional components. 3. In most cases, there should be no contour limitations and the welders may proceed with the jobs as per non-coated steel. 4. The solution may get rid of all the zinc vapour porosity at the lower speeds and partial of the porosity at the higher speeds.

In these equations, b is the width of zinc boiling isotherm whose value can be approximated for the model development, tZn is the thickness of the zinc layer, V is the welding speed, rs is the solid zinc density (7140 kg/m3), w is the keyhole width and g is the minimum gap required for the slot with the condition of gb2tZn. Equating both of these, we get to the needed value of minimum slot width, whose value can be given in SI system as p V rs w 2b 2w 2rv rFe g e t p , (5) g V rs p w tp . g w 2b 0:5145 V (6)

Welding Beam

Cutting Beam

Weld Track

Exhaust Slot

Welding Direction

Here we are interested in nding the optimal value of minimum gap g with the condition that all the generated zinc vapours will be exhausted by the slot. The gap can be decreased further if partial zinc vapour exhaust is allowed through the molten metal and some porosity is tolerable. Value of b can be approximated with two-dimensional heat ow equation. For our purposes, it may yield a value in the range 0.5ww depending on different welding parameters [15]. Any variation in this value may only shift the gap value curves a little without effecting the overall analysis.

3. Material and methods The welding experimentation with the new technique was performed with a 2.5 kW CO2 laser with a vertical head having a xed beam focal length of 80 mm set at the specimen. The galvanized sheets were placed in lap conguration and were passed through cutting and welding as per given technique. The machine was operated within stable beam power ranges avoiding any unacceptable transverse beam modes. A laser diode output collinear with the main beam was used for alignment. Work-piece was placed at the focus point, which was experimentally determined using an inclined Perspex sheet in the beam path.

2b + w

w g CO2 Keyhole

Fig. 1. Welding operation with the two beams used in tandem, (a) operation and (b) welding dimensions.

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A CNC XY table was used with the laser for the placement and movement of the work-piece. Industrial-grade nitrogen was used for the shielding purpose, which in our case also helps for the exhaustion of the ejected zinc vapours. Gas pressure was approximately 2 bar and exit nozzle was coaxial with about 1.5 mm dia. The main parameters of the sample and the process are summarized in Table 1. As per the availability of a single laser head, cutting and welding were done turn-by-turn and alignment tolerance between these two passes was about 10 mm due to the limitation of CNC table used. For obtaining good welding results, speeds used were slower than the cutting speeds with occasional changes. The cutting beam width had some variation due to the setup limitations of not being able to focus the beam to the desired lower spot sizes of o0.3 mm. It was marginally set at 0.3 mm with some inevitable expansion as this value was still lower than its stable focusing limits of $0.4 mm and this gave different slot widths in some cuts too. Another reason of this variation was some tolerance in the beam focal point setting, which occasionally drifted downward with slot getting wider. In view of the given experimental parameters, the minimum gap requirement can be calculated using the theory presented earlier. Using Eq. (6), we come to Fig. 2, which gives the minimum required gap for different welding speeds. But as we see, the minimum gap requirements come up after the speed of about 0.008 m/s or 480 mm/min with no minimum gap before that. As our experimental speeds are lower than this gure, any gap width is acceptable for welding in this setup until the earlier condition of gb2tZn holds, which is easily met as tZn is in microns. Thus for such low speeds, all the given shaded area is a safe speed-gap ratios area in the curve, while our actual slot gaps are forcibly more than this due to the apparatus constraints anyway.
Table 1 Material and process parameters. SrNo Material parameter 1. 2. 3. 4. Sheet thickness (tp) Steel type Zinc thickness (tZn) Placement conguration Value 0.7 mm Mild 50 mm Lap Process parameter Power (welding) Power (cutting) Speed (welding) Speed (cutting) Beam width (welding) Beam width (cutting) Beam mode Value $900 W $400 W $200 mm/min $300 mm/min $0.6 mm $0.3 mm $TEM11

4. Results and discussion In order to collect sufcient data for the analysis of this technique, 12 welds were carried out with this method. Each weld was individually passed through cutting and welding beams. In order to t the welds on the available experimental sheet-pairs, they were divided into two different rows. As per the welding results, there was pitting in the welds 1, 2, 4, 5, 2A and 3A. Looking at the slots cut for these welds they are seen to be having larger widths, which in turn is due to the poor beam-mode and semicontrollable beam-width used. At the same time, good welding was observed with the welds 6, 1A and 5A with almost no pitting. This readily corresponded to the smaller slot widths in these welds, which can be improved further by the use of a good propagation-factor laser. Fig. 3 shows the micrographic views of a weld carried out with the described technique, which may not be the ideal joint but should lead to better results after further perfection of the technique. The results obtained by the inspection of these welds are summarized in Table 2. As observed from the gures in the table, the point of concern here is not the presence of the minimum gap width, but rather it is that due to the apparatus limitations, the slot gap becomes more than needed and the overlap between the incident welding beam and the edges of the slot in the sheet (beam widthslot gap) becomes too small. After the due compilation of Table 2 data, Fig. 4 is obtained showing different weld categories in the welding results as corresponding to the width of the slot edges actually lying under the main welding beam. As we see in the gure, the overall trend is that the better welds are the ones which have narrower slots and thus the wider kerf sides lying under the welding beam. At the same time, with a wider slot, there are always more chances of the material dropping in the empty slot and thus giving rise to more pitting in the weld region. For analysis purpose, some of the welds carried out earlier by this technique were subjected to the scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM EDS) analysis in order to investigate the residual zinc contents in the welded region [16]. Obtained results veried the absence of zinc contents in some of the analyzed welded regions and in close-by zinc boiling isotherm.

5. Renement prospects The method of using dual laser beams in tandem for cutting as well as welding the galvanized sheets in lap conguration now is demonstrated as given above. Some of the limitations of this technique may include the cost considerations owing to the use of dual laser source and the needed precision of the electronic control system for alignment of both beams. Moreover there is problem of the gap control as the weld may easily dropout or pits are developed in it if the gap is wider than needed as seen in our data too. One solution to the inevitable problem of more-than-required slot width on the common welding systems can be the use of a laser welding beam of elliptical cross-section or to use a lens with a double convex shape so that the laser beam can be split as needed and the two parallel beams are focused on the same plane with a marginal gap. In this way we may generate an elliptical or double keyhole for proper welding without losing intense part of laser energy between the kerf. It may be mentioned that this approach is not expected to make the weld pool extra-large, rather it may bring its size back from a decreased size due to the presence of the empty slot area. Taking into account the

0.001 0.0008 Min Gap (m) 0.0006 0.0004 0.0002 0 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 Speed (m/s)
Fig. 2. Minimum slot gap requirement plotted against the welding speed, along with the desirable gap values for low-speeds shown as shaded area where there is no minimum.

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Fig. 3. Micrographs of the cross-section of the welds with the given technique, (a) 50 view and (b) 400 view.

Table 2 Welding results. S.No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1A 2A 3A 4A 5A 6A Cut slot width (mm) 0.5 0.4 0.45 0.4 0.35 0.32 0.5 0.45 0.43 0.3 0.35 Cutting remarks Partial cutting Partial cutting No cutting Partial cutting Partial cutting Full cutting Full cutting Full cutting Full cutting Full cutting Full cutting Full cutting Welding speed (mm/min) 200 200 200 300 200 200 250 250 200 200 200 Welding power (W) 900 900 900 900 900 900 900 1000 900 900 900 900 Welding remarks Weld with pitting Weld with less pitting No welding Weld with less pitting Weld with less pitting Good weld with no pitting Good weld with no pitting Weld with more pitting Good weld partially Good weld partially Good weld with no pitting Dropout weld

Good

Partial Good Weld Quality

Less Pitting

More Pitting

Fig. 5. Three options of incident welding beam falling on the cut slot, including single beam, closely spaced split-up beam and widely spaced split-up beam.

Poor
The ow of the vapours exhausted by the slot may not change much until the separation of the beam-lets is excessive and the cross-section of the overlap area between the slot edge and the new keyhole is fairly diminished. Thus, as per the earlier model the minimum gap value may be given as p w tp . (8) g w d 2b 0:5145 V Again here the target condition is that all the zinc vapours will be exhausted by the slot. The given width can be decreased further if partial zinc vapour exhaust is allowed through the molten metal and some porosity is tolerable. By applications of Eq. (8), we can simulate the minimum gap requirement as plotted against various contributing parameters like the welding speed, welding beam diameter and the thickness of the plate. Other than the varying parameters in each of the curves, the nominal values used include V 0.02 m/s, tp 0.7 mm and w 0.6 mm. As seen in Figs. 68, the gap requirement increases sharply with increasing speeds rst and levels-off at the higher speeds, which are otherwise unrealizable due to the excessive gap giving out dropout welds anyway. But at the lower speeds, there is no minimum requirement as the thickness of the

1.0

2.0

3.0

Beam Overlap or w-g (mm)

Fig. 4. Weld quality plotted against the width of the overlap between the welding beam and the slot edges after the cutting process.

separation between the centers of this split beam, its crosssection on the cut slot may be as given in Fig. 5. For the split welding beam with cross-section of two overlapping circles, the mathematical model presented earlier may be modied in view of the fact that there is now more ow of the zinc vapours generated by this beam as per the area of the galvanized plate coming under it. Thus if the two beam-lets, with effective width w each, are separated by the center-to-center distance d and other parameters are same, Eq. (3) of generated vapours ow may be modied as Flowgen 2t Zn V rs w d g 2b . (7)

rv

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0.0014 0.0012 0.001 Min Gap (m) 0.0008 0.0006 0.0004 0.0002 0 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 Speed (m/s) 0.04 0.05 Split = 0mm Split = 0.1mm Split = 0.2mm

Fig. 6. Minimum slot gap requirement for split-up welding beam plotted against welding speed.

decreased with the increase in the sheet thickness. It may well be due to the heavier ferro-static head developed due to the thicker plates, which may force the vapours ejection at a higher speed. As it can be noticed from these gures, the more gap is required if the normal beam is split-up and also that this requirement increases with the increase in the displacement between the split-up beam-lets. This can readily be attributed to the increase in the area under the incident laser beam which in turn evaporates more zinc vapours to be exhausted through the cut slot. The actual utility of this scheme comes in the shape of lesser wastage of the beam peak power in the slot and forming a larger but more effective keyhole weld pool. Thus, a better weld can be expected with lesser chances of the dropout material, when compared with those given in Fig. 4. At the same time the energy consumption is sure to decrease in view of the lesser wastage of the beam.

0.0012 0.001 Min Gap (m) 0.0008 0.0006 0.0004 0.0002 0 0 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 Beam Width (m) 0.0008 Split = 0mm Split = 0.1mm Split = 0.2mm

6. Conclusions In this work it has been experimentally determined that the dual beam scheme involving a slot cut before welding favors the needed exhaust of zinc vapours when the actual weld is carried out. Spectroscopy analysis of the welds from this technique has veried the absence of zinc in some welded areas. The solution may be easier to implement as it does not need any preprocessing, pre-arrangement or contour limitations and the welders may proceed with the jobs as per non-coated steel. The solution may get rid of all the zinc vapour porosity at the lower speeds and partial of the porosity at the higher speeds. Here some new experimental results have been obtained verifying the efcacy of this technique in getting rid of the zinc trapped in the welding keyhole. Along with this, the possibility of a using a transversely split-up beam for the welding purposes in this approach has been analyzed and it has been found that such beam can help to weld in all those situations where a major part of the welding beam is expected to be lost in the slot due to wider slot kerf or narrower welding beam. This new technique is expected to be very useful in prospective industrial applications like automotive manufacturing plants.

Fig. 7. Minimum slot gap requirement for split-up welding beam plotted against welding beam diameter.

0.0016 0.0014 0.0012 Min Gap (m) 0.001 0.0008 0.0006 0.0004 0.0002 0 0 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 Sheet Thickness (m) 0.0008 Split = 0mm Split = 0.1mm Split = 0.2mm

Acknowledgments The authors are indebted to Prof. William Steen of Arrington, UK and Prof. Andrea De Marchi of Politecnico di Torino, Italy for their encouragement. They are also obliged to the management of HITEC University, Taxila for their help. Part of the funding for the research was provided by Higher Education Commission Pakistan. Lastly we are obliged to our families for their never-ending support. References
[1] Pieters RR, Bakels JG, Hermans MJ, Ouden G. Laser welding of zinc coated steel in an edge lap conguration. J Laser Appl 2006;18:199204. [2] Deney P, Xie J. The welding of galvanized steel. LIA Proc ICALEO 2000;91:A19. [3] Kielwasser M, Fabbro R, Petring D, Poprawe R. Physical process during pulsed laser and CW-CO2 laser welding of zinc coated steel. LIA Proc ICALEO 2000;91:A109. [4] Wu Q, Gong J, Chen G, Xu L. Research on laser welding of vehicle body. Opt Laser Tech 2008;40:4206. [5] Naeem M, Stolarczyk J. High power Nd:YAG welding of automotive materials. LIA Proc ICALEO 2000;91:A207. [6] Li X, Lawson S, Zhou Y, Goodwin F. Novel technique for laser lap welding of zinc coated sheet steels. J Laser Appl 2007;19:25964.

Fig. 8. Minimum slot gap requirement for split-up welding beam plotted against steel plate thickness.

zinc coating determines the amount exhausted and the gap is expected to be much more than that anyway. As per the gap requirement in relation with the beam-width, it is understandably more for the bigger beam dias, which melt more area and more vapours are ejected. At the same time, the gap requirement

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[7] Yih-fong T. Gap-free lap welding of zinc-coated steel using pulsed CO2 laser. Int J Adv Manuf Tech 2006;29:28795. [8] Bonss S, Brenner B, Beyer E. Innovations in laser hybrid technology. Ind Laser Sol Manuf 2001;16:2933. [9] Akhter R, Steen WM, Watkins KG. Welding zinc-coated steel with a laser and the properties of the weldment. J Laser Appl 1991;3:920. [10] Delle Piane AD, Sartorio F, Cantello M, Ghiringhello G. Method of laser welding sheet metal protected by low-vaporizing-temperature materials. US Patent 4682002, 1987. [11] Gualini MMS, Iqbal S, Grassi F. Modied dual-beam method for welding galvanized steel sheets in lap conguration. J Laser Appl 2006;18:18591. [12] Iqbal S, Gualini MMS, Grassi F. Laser welding of zinc-coated steel with tandem beams: analysis and comparison. J Mater Process Tech 2007;184:128. [13] Grevey D, Sallamand P, Cicala E, Ignat S. Gas protection optimization during Nd:YAG laser welding. Opt Laser Tech 2005;37:64751. [14] Akhter R, Gualini MMS. Mathematical modeling of the laser spot welding of zinc coated steel in lap conguration. LIA Pro ICALEO 1998;91:20716. [15] Nippon Steel, Weldability of galvanized steel sheets in laser welding. Nippon Steel Technical Report 95, 2007. [16] SEM Inc. Scanning electron microscopy. Scanning Electron Microscopy, Inc.; 1986. p. 8479.

Dr. Salman Iqbal did his graduation from UET, Lahore, Pakistan and his masters from University of California, Irvine, USA. He has just completed his doctorate from Electronics Engineering Dept., International I University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Dr. Muddassir M.S. Gualini did his graduation and doctorate from Polytechnico di Torino, Turin, Italy. He has been teaching in different universities of Pakistan. Now he is working on a research attachment in Electronics Engineering Dept., Polytechnico di Torino, Turin, Italy.

Mr. Ateeq ur Rehman has just completed his M.Phil. degree from Dept. of Applied Physics, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences & Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.