Acquisition and processing of coaxial image of molten pool and keyhole in Nd:YAG laser welding with high power

An experimental setup of acquiring the coaxial visual image of the molten pool and keyhole in high power Nd:YAG laser welding is introduced in this paper. It is one of the most difficult problems in acquiring coaxial image that the coaxial imaging signal of molten pool and keyhole must be separated from the laser beam with high power. This problem was resolved by designing a dichroitic spectroscope. The characteristics of imaging signal were analyzed and the coaxial image of molten pool and keyhole was acquired. A smoothing filter and a homomorphic filter were designed to remove the low frequency noise and to enhance the image according to the characteristics of imaging signal. At last, edges of molten pool and keyhole were detected and extracted based on image segmentation with threshold.

Electron beam welding of Ti-15-3 titanium alloy to 304 stainless steel with copper interlayer sheet

Electron beam welding of Ti-15-3 titanium alloy to 304 stainless steel with a copper sheet as interlayer was carried out.Microstructures of the joint were studied by optical microscopy(OM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and X-ray diffractometry(XRD).In addition,the mechanical properties of the joint were evaluated by tensile test and the microhardness was measured.These two alloys were successfully welded by adding copper transition layer into the weld.Solid solution with a certain thickness was located at the interfaces between weld and base metal in both sides.Regions inside the weld and near the stainless steel were characterized by solid solution of copper with TiFe2 intermetallics dispersedly distributed in it.While weld near titanium alloy contained Ti-Cu and Ti-Fe-Cu intermetallics layer,in which the hardness of weld came to the highest value.Brittle fracture occurred in the intermetallics layer when the joint was stretched.

Effect of strain hardening and strain softening on welding distortion and residual stress of A7N01-T4 aluminum alloy by simulation analysis

The effect of strain hardening and strain softening behavior of flow stress changing with temperature on welding residual stress,plastic strain and welding distortion of A7N01-T4 aluminum alloy was studied by finite simulation method.The simulation results show that the weld seam undergoes strain hardening in the temperature range of 180-250 ℃,however,it exhibits strain softening at temperature above 250 ℃ during welding heating and cooling process.As a result,the strain hardening and strain softening effects counteract each other,introducing slightly influence on the welding residual stress,residual plastic strain and distortion.The welding longitudinal residual stress was determined by ultrasonic stress measurement method for the flat plates of A7N01-T4 aluminum alloy.The simulation results are well accordant with test ones.

Si diffusion behavior during laser welding-brazing of Al alloy and Ti alloy with Al-12Si filler wire

In laser welding-brazing of Al alloy (5A06) and Ti alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with rectangular CO2 laser spot and with Al-12Si filler wire, element Si enriches at the interface between Ti substrate and the filler metal. It is found that the Si diffusion behavior has a significant effect on the formation of interfacial intermetallic compounds. To analyze the Si diffusion behavior, a model for the prediction of the chemical potential for ternary alloy was established. According to the calculated results of the influence of the element content and temperature in Ti-Al-Si system on Si chemical potential, the diffusion behavior of Si element was analyzed for Ti dissolution and melting mode, which presents a good agreement with the experimental data. Further, formation mechanism of the interfacial intermetllic compound was clarified.

Microstructure and porosity analysis in ultrasonic assisted TIG welding of 2014 aluminum alloy

The ultrasonic assisted tungsten inert gas （U-TIG） welding is a newly developed arc welding method, which is aimed at improving the weld quality and efficiency. TIG welding and U-TIG welding of 2014 aluminum alloy with 5 mm thickness were experimentally carried out in this paper. The microstructure and porosity of welded joints were analyzed. Compared with conventional TIG welding, the columnar crystals are changed into equiaxed crystals at the centre of weld zone and the grain of fusion zone in U-TIG welding is refined and equiaxed. The porosities of joint decrease after the ultrasonic was applied on the arc. The mechanism of crystal grain refinement is discussed in this paper and the reasons of porosity decrease in U-TIG welded joint may be due to the effect of acoustic streaming and cavitation, which need further research.

Repair welding process of friction stir welding groove defect

The groove defect formed in the friction stir welding dramatically deteriorates weld appearances and mechanical properties of the joints owing to its larger size and penetration. Therefore, the friction stir repair welding was utilized to remove such a groove defect, and the focus was placed on the mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of the repair joints so as to obtain an optimum repair welding process. The experimental results indicate that the groove defect can be removed by friction stir repair welding, and the offset repair welding process is superior to the symmetrical repair welding process. In the symmetrical repair welding process, a large number of fine cavity defects and an obvious aggregation of hard-brittle phase Al2Cu occur, accordingly the mechanical properties of the repair joint are weakened, and the fracture feature of repair joint is partially brittle and partially plastic. A good-quality repair joint can be obtained by the offset repair welding process, and the repair joint is fractured near the interface between the weld nugget zone and thermal-mechanically affected zone.

Study on the effect of welding current during laser beam-resistance seam welding of aluminum alloy 5052

The effect of welding current on the weld shape and tensile shear load during laser beam-resistance seam welding （LB-RSW） of aluminum alloy 5052 is studied. Experimental results show that the penetration depth, weld width ,tensile shear load and the ratio of penetration depth to weld width of LB-RSW are bigger than those of laser beam welding（ LBW） under the same conditions and the former three parameters increase as welding current rises. The weld shape of LB-RSW below 5 kA welding current is nearly the same as that of LBW. The weld morphology is protuberant under the condition of 5 kA welding current and 0. 8 m/min welding speed. Furthermore, the microstructure of the weld seam of LB-RSW is coarser than that of LBW.

The arc characteristic of ultrasonic assisted TIG welding

Many applications of ultrasonic-assisted methods were used during metal solidification, but they could not be introduced into weld pool. In this paper, a way of ultrasonic assisted TIG welding is introduced. By directly imposed ultrasonic vibration on welding arc, the vibration interacts with arc plasma and passes to the weld pool. Measurement results show that arc pressure is significantly increased with the ultrasonic vibration and the arc pressure distribution models are changed. Bead-on-plate welding tests on SUS304 confirm that this technology can influence the style of metal melting and increase weld penetration depth.

Three dimensional numerical simulation of welding temperature fields in stainless steel

Three kinds of mathematical models representing welding heat sources are presented. Among them, Gaussian model and double ellipsoidal model are used to analyze the thermal distributions with finite element method. At the same time, this paper analyzed the influences of the heat source models, the latent heat and the welding parameters on the temperature distributions. The comparisons between the simulated results and the experiments show double ellipsoidal model is good for three-dimensional numerical simulations. Furthermore, the adaptive mesh technique is applied in the three-dimensional model which greatly reduces the number of nodes and elements in the simulation.

THE INTERFACIAL BEHAVIORS OF ALUMINUM MATRIX COMPOSITE IN DIFFERENT WELDING METHODS

Non-interlayer liquid phase diffusion welding (China Patent) and laser welding methods for aluminum matrix composite are mainly described in this paper. In the non-interlayer liquid phase diffusion welding, the key processing parameters affecting the strength of joint is welding temperature. When temperature rises beyond solidus temperature, the bonded line vanishes. The strength of joint reaches the maximum and becomes constant when welding temperature is close to liquid phase temperature. Oxide film in the interface is no longer detected by SEM in the welded joint. With this kind of technique, particle reinforced aluminum matrix composite Al2 O3p/6061Al is welded successfully, and the joint strength is about 80% of the strength of composite (as-casted). In the laser welding, results indicate that because of the huge specific surface area of the reinforcement, the interfacial reaction between the matrix and the reinforcement is restrained intensively at certain laser power and pulsed laser beam. The laser pulse frequency directly affects the reinforcement segregation and the reinforcement distribution in the weld, so that the weldability of the composite could be improved by increasing the laser pulse frequency. The maximum strength of the weld can reach 70% of the strength of the parent.

Research on CMT welding of nickel-based alloy with stainless steel

Cold Metal Transfer （CMT） welding technique is a new welding technique introduced by Fronins company. CMT welding of nickel-based alloy with stainless steel was carried out using CuSi3 filler wire in this paper. Effects of welding parameters, including welding current, welding speed, etc, on weld surface appearance were tested. Microstructure and mechanical properties of CMT weld were studied. The results shaw that the thickness of interface reaction layer of the nickel- based alloy is 14. 3 μm, which is only 4. 33% of base material. The weld is made up of two phases, α-copper and iron-based solid solution. Rupture occurs initially at the welded seam near the edge of stainless steel in shear test. The maximum shear strength of the CuSi3 welded joint is 184. 9 MPa.

Physics characteristic of coupling arc of twin-tungsten TIG welding

Twin-tungsten TIG welding was developed, in which two electrodes were placed in a single welding torch. In order to master this process, the arc physics characteristic was studied. The twin-tungsten coupling arc shape was observed by using CCD camera, and the arc pressure was measured. The results show that the coupling arc includes two arcs that pull each other according to Lorentz force and one big coupling arc is formed; the coupling arc pressure is much lower than that of conventional TIG arc. In the end, a simple welding experiment was carried out. This proves that stable welding process can be achieved by twin-tungsten TIG at higher current than that of conventional TIG because of its low arc pressure and the high efficiency welding is realized.

An initial study on welding procedure using tandem MIG welding of high strength aluminum alloy

The high-speed camera system and data acquisition system of welding parameters were created in tandem MIG welding of high strength aluminum alloy. The experiments were carried out in order to obtain the photos of droplet transfer under different welding parameters in pulsed mode. The droplet transfer mode of “one pulse one droplet” becomes the preferred selection during welding process because of its stable procedure and sound weld form. The parameter ranges for corresponding transfer mode were experimentally achieved, among which the stable droplet transfer mode of “one pulse one droplet” can be realized. These efforts brave the way for control weld heat input and weld formation in the future.

Temperature field simulation of laser-TIG hybrid welding

The three dimensional transient temperature distribution of laser TIG hybrid welding was analyzed and simulated numerically. Calculations were based on a finite element model, in which the physical process of hybrid welding was studied and the coupling effect of the laser and arc in the hybrid process was fully considered. The temperature fields and weld cross sections of the typical welding parameters are obtained using present model. The calculation results show that the model can indicate the relationship of energy match between laser and arc to joints cross sections objectively, and the simulation results are well agreed with the experimental results.

Optimality analysis of multiplex A-TIG welding flux for nickel-base superalloy

Orthogonal experiment is employed to study a new kind of multiplex flux for nickel-base superalloy. This activated TIG welding flux is composed of NaF, MgF2 and CaF2, and their proportion is 5：4：1. Compared with conventional TIG welding, the penetration increases 164% by the action of the flux. Tensile test result indicates that the fracture strength of the mixed flux A-TIG weld bead is higher than base metal, and it increases along with the decrement of the welding current. The average extensibility of the weldment is beyond 100%, which means perfect ductility. MetaUographs elucidate that there exist lots of deep and evenly distributed dimples on the fiacture section of weld bead while on that of base metal there only exists a few shallow dimples and massive tearing ridge.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DROPLET TRANSFER IN CO_2 LASER-MIG HYBRID WELDING WITH SHORTCIRCUITING MODE

LF6 aluminum alloy plates with 4.5 mm thickness are welded in this experiment. Welding is carried out by using the CO2 laser-MIG paraxial hybrid welding in fiat position. The experimental results indicate that the inherent droplet transfer cycle time of conventional MIG arc is changed due to the interaction between CO2 laser beam and MIG arc in the short-circuiting mode of laser-MIG hybrid welding. Because of the preheating action of CO2 laser to electrode and base material, the droplet transfer frequency of MIG arc is increased in the hybrid welding process. When laser power is increased to a certain degree, the droplet transfer frequency is decreased due to the effect of laser-induced keyhole. Furthermore, through analyzing the MIG welding current and arc voltage waveforms and the characteristics of droplet transfer in the hybrid welding process, the effect of laser energy and the action point between laser beam and arc on the frequency of droplet transfer and weld appearance is investigated in details.

Three dimension simulation analysis of the interpass stress and deformation during multipass welding

It has been widely studied about the final residual stress and deformation in muhipass welding of thick weldments. But there is a lack of a clear understanding of the interrelationship of interpass stress and deformation during multipass welding. In this study, a three dimension numerical model of a sixteen-pass double V-groove welded joint with 50 mm plate is developed to compute the stress field and deformation by using multiple CPU parallel processing technology. The following factors such as the non-linear of temperature, heat radiation, filling of material step by step and so on are considered. Distribution and evolution law of welding stress in the transverse and longitudinal section is analyzed in this paper, and the interpnss stresses are studied also. At the same time the evolution course of angular deformation amount is analyzed, and the experimental results show that the calculated resuhs accord with the measured results of angular deformation.

A welding document management software package based on a Client/Server structure

According to specifications for Welding Procedure Qualification of ASME IX Section and Chinese code, JB 4708 2000, a software package for managing welding documents has been rebuilt. Consequently, the new software package can be used in a Limited Area Network (LAN) with 4 different levels of authorities for different users. Therefore, the welding documents, including DWPS (Design for Welding Procedure Specifications), PQRs (Procedure Qualification Records) and WPS (Welding Procedure Specifications) can be shared within a company. At the same time, the system provides users various functions such as browsing, copying, editing, searching and printing records, and helps users to make decision of whether a new PQR test is necessary or not according to the codes above as well. Furthermore, super users can also browse the history of record modification and retrieve the records when needed.

3D reconstruction of worn parts for flexible remanufacture based on robotic arc welding

3D reconstruction of worn parts is the foundation for remanufacturing system based on robotic arc welding, because it can provide 3D geometric information for robot task plan. In this investigation, a novel 3D reconstruction system based on linear structured light vision sensing is developed. This system hardware consists of a MTC368-CB CCD camera, a MLH-645 laser projector and a DH-CG300 image grabbing card. This system software is developed to control the image data capture. In order to reconstruct the 3D geometric information from the captured image, a two steps rapid calibration algorithm is proposed. The 3D reconstruction experiment shows a satisfactory result.

Visual sensing and morphological image processing of weld pool in laser spot welding

A visual sensing system was established to monitor the weld pool in laser spot welding. The top-hat and bottom-hat transformation algorithms based on mathematical morphology were used to compensate for non-uniform contrast of weld pool edge. Moreover, the canny edge detector was applied to extract the weld paol profile. The edge detected results show that the morphological operation is obviously superior to the traditional contrast enhancement method. In addition, the combination of dilation and erosion was applied to eliminate the irrelevant edge details, and the smooth weld pool edge was acquired. Based on the image processing technology described above, the dynamic process of weld pool diameter during laser spot welding was obtained.