Laser Weldability of Aluminum Alloy and Steel

Abstract

With the intention of improving butt or lap joint of dissimilar materials, specially devised weld beads together with lap and butt-joints were produced between A5052 and SPCC, where A5052 butt-joint was melted by heat-conduction of SPCC weld bead in addition to the formation of a limited weld fusion zone at the lap part in A5052 alloy. The thickness of intermetallic compounds at the butt-joint interface was approximately 2 μm and free of cracks. It was also revealed that crack-free lap weld metals were formed between aluminum alloy and steel when the penetration was controlled to be of less than 0.3 mm in depth at small heat input. It was moreover found that the majority of a laser weld fusion zone solidified as alpha(bcc)-iron phase containing small amount of aluminum, and cracks were absent in the case of hard intermetallic (AlxFey type) layer of less than 10μm zone. It was confirmed that a weld with lap and butt joints possessed high strength (leading to the load 3500 N to 4,380 N for 40 mm width specimen). In addition, SPCC and A1100 or A5052 were subjected to lap welding with a cw YAG laser, where one to three passes were performed to produce wider bonded areas. Dissimilar steel and aluminum joints with good mechanical properties were obtained, since the fracture occurred in the aluminum alloy base metal in the tensile test. It is concluded that welded joints of high strength can be produced between aluminum alloy and steel with proper devices.