Characteristics of welding distortion/residual stress generated by fillet welding with laser beam and verification of generality of its highly accurate prediction

Abstract

It was found that the characteristics of welding distortion and residual stress generated by laser beam welding (LBW) had the same tendency as those by arc welding but that the absolute value was small. Moreover, the process of LBW is quite different from that of arc welding, the validity and generality of the dominant factors to predict high accuracy welding distortion and residual stress generated by welding could be verified by the high accurate prediction of welding distortion and residual stress which had been proposed based on arc welding. Inherent force was proposed as a parameter which could indicate the magnitude of compressive residual stress, which might influence the load-carrying capacity. Although inherent forces with LBW were 40% that of arc welding, it was found that control of welding heat input was important so as to improve the load-carrying capacity.

Keywords:

• laser welding
• welding distortion
• residual stress
• digital photogrammetry
• production mechanism
• inherent force