Improvement of Penetration Characteristics by Plasma Angmented Laser Welding of Small Diameter Stainless Steel Tubes

Hwang, Jae-Ryeon; Yoon, Suk-Hwan; Na, Suck-Joo

JWJ > Volume 22(6); 2004 > Article

Journal of KWJS 2004 December;22(6) :30-35.
Published online January 26, 2005.

Improvement of Penetration Characteristics by Plasma Angmented Laser Welding of Small Diameter Stainless Steel Tubes

Jae-Ryeon Hwang, Suk-Hwan Yoon, Suck-Joo Na

Correspondence: Published online January 26, 2005

ABSTRACT

Laser welding is obviously an attractive method to join small, thin parts such as small stainless steel tubes, but it is very sensitive to the joint clearance and tolerance, and this makes laser welding difficult to obtain consistent welding qualities over time, Recently, Plasma Augmented Laser Welding(PALW) is being developed to solve these problems. In this study, plasma arc welding(PAW) was introduced to join conventional V-grooved butt joint of thin stainless steel strips using single laser heat source in manufacturing small stainless steel tubes. The effect of the welding speed enhancement is investigated by the experiments. Effects of welding directions, distance between the heat sources and intensity of arc heat source on the optima] welding speed was investigated. Through this research, it was confirmed that PALW process has higher welding speed and robustness than laser welding process.