Elucidation of influencing parameters of the laser butt welding process of dissimilar steel to tungsten alloy sheets

Laser welding of steel - tungsten alloy joints requires deep understanding of the impact of the laser parameters on the welding process. Due to the dissimilar thermal and metallurgical properties of both materials, a defined heat input and a precise temperature control in the weld interface is required. In the presented work, the influence of different laser parameter (e.g. laser power, focal position, scanner speed etc.) on the joint quality of laser welded steel / tungsten alloy butt-joints were investigated. By using statistical methods, the influencing process parameters were defined and optimized. It is shown that the horizontal focal position is the main parameter for the welding process in a butt-joint configuration. Additionally, manipulation of the heat input leads to modifications of the weld bead profile. By obtaining vertical seam boundaries in the sheet metal, a homogenous temperature profile at the interface of the materials to be welded was achieved. Due to the complete bonding and low amount of intermetallic phases, high shear strength accompanied with a low variance were the result.