Micro welding of thin foils with an elliptical beam of direct diode laser

Abstract

Recently industrial products and components are being made smaller to reduce energy consumption and save space, and this trend needs to develop an advanced micro welding for thin foils less than 100µm thick. In this report, in order to examine the applicability of a direct diode laser system with an elliptical beam, butt-, lap-and edge-welding were performed for thin metallic foils less than 100µm in thickness. It was found that the elliptical shape direct diode laser beam was effective to form a weld bead with the narrow width at high welding speed rather than with the ordinary circular laser beam. The direct diode laser with an elliptical beam enabled butt-welding of thin stainless steel foils with the thickness down to 40µm, lap-welding of thin stainless foils of 20µm in thickness onto a thick substrate and edge-welding of INCOLE718 thin foils of 100µm in thickness without crack.Recently industrial products and components are being made smaller to reduce energy consumption and save space, and this trend needs to develop an advanced micro welding for thin foils less than 100µm thick. In this report, in order to examine the applicability of a direct diode laser system with an elliptical beam, butt-, lap-and edge-welding were performed for thin metallic foils less than 100µm in thickness. It was found that the elliptical shape direct diode laser beam was effective to form a weld bead with the narrow width at high welding speed rather than with the ordinary circular laser beam. The direct diode laser with an elliptical beam enabled butt-welding of thin stainless steel foils with the thickness down to 40µm, lap-welding of thin stainless foils of 20µm in thickness onto a thick substrate and edge-welding of INCOLE718 thin foils of 100µm in thickness without crack.