A study on fiber laser micro-spot welding of thin stainless steel using response surface methodology and simulated annealing approach

Abstract

This study analyzed variations of shear strength that depend on the fiber laser process during micro-spot welding of AISI 304 stainless thin sheets. A preliminary study used ANSYS results to obtain initial process conditions. The experimental plan was based on a Taguchi orthogonal array table. A hybrid method that includes the response surface methodology (RSM)- and back propagation neural network (BPNN)- integrated simulated annealing algorithm (SAA) is proposed to search for an optimal parameter setting of the micro-spot welding process. In addition, an analysis of variance was implemented to identify significant factors influencing the micro-spot welding process parameters, which was also used to compare the results of BPNN-integrated SAA with the RSM approach. The results show that the RSM and BPNN/SAA methods are both effective tools for the optimization of micro-spot welding process parameters. A confirmation experiment was also conducted in order to validate the optimal welding process parameter values.