Effect of the welding speed on the characteristics of Nd:YAG laser welds for automotive application : 600MPa PH high strength steel

600MPa급 자동차용 석출경화형 고장력강판 Nd:YAG 레이저 용접부의 특성에 미치는 용접속도의 영향

The effect of welding speed on the weldability, microstructures, hardness, tensile property of Nd:YAG laser welding joint in 600MPa grade precipitation hardening high strength steel was investigated. A shielding gas was not used, and bead-on-plate welding was performed using various welding speeds at a power of 3.5kW. Porosity in the joints occurred at 1.8m/min, but were not observed over the welding speed of 2.1m/min. However, spatter occurred over the welding speed of 6.6m/min. The hardness was the highest at heat affected zone(HAZ) near fusion zone(FZ), and was decreased on approaching to the base metal. The maximum hardness increased with increasing welding speed. The microstructure of FZ was composed of coarse grain boundary ferrite and bainite(upper) but the HAZ near the FZ contained bainite(Lower) and fine ferrite at a low welding speed. With increasing welding speed, ferrite at the FZ and the HAZ became finely and upper binite changed to lower bainite. In a perpendicular tensile test to the weld line, all specimens were fractured at the base metal, and the tensile strength and the yield strength of joints was equal to those of raw material. Elongation was found to be lower than that of the raw material.