Laser welding of Ti6Al4V titanium alloys

The high strength to weight ratio and excellent corrosion resistance of titanium alloys allow diverse application in various fields including the medical and aerospace industry. Several techniques have been considered to achieve reliable welds with minimum distortion for the fabrication of components in these industries. Of these techniques, laser welding can provide a significant benefit for the welding of titanium alloys because of its precision and rapid processing capability. For pulse mode Nd:YAG laser welding, pulse shape, energy, duration, repetition rate and peak power are the most important parameters that influence directly or synergistically the quality of pulsed seam welds. In this study, experimental work involved examination of the welding parameters for joining a 3-mm thick titanium alloy using the Lumonics JK760TR Nd:YAG pulsed laser. It has been determined that the ratio between the pulse energy and pulse duration is the most important parameter in defining the penetration depth. Also it has been observed the variation of pulse duration at constant peak power has no influence on the penetration depth. Consequently, to increase the penetration depth during welding, the role of the laser parameters such as pulse energy and duration and peak power have been investigated to join 3 mm thick Ti6Al4V.