Parametric Study of Laser Welding on Polyamide using Design of Experiments

Abstract

Laser welding was primarily employed for metals but recent developments in laser technology have enabled its applications in the polymers field. Laser transmission welding or joining of two polymers and metal-polymer has become feasible. The study was mainly aimed to investigate the influence of laser power, speed of welding, and number of passes based on Taguchi orthogonal array on responses by using continuous mode high power diode fiber laser on polyamide. The weld quality was assessed by measuring the strength of weld and width of the weld seam. Initial study on diode fiber laser welding machine and the parameters associated with it was essential to design the experimental layout. Polyamide, which is widely used in the automotive industry was selected as the material and the influence of various parameters on the laser welds were studied using design of experiments. The experimental studies were performed based on orthogonal array method. The responses of the weld were measured using an optical metallurgical microscope. The ideal parameters for maximum joint strength and minimum weld width are investigated using Taguchi method. The multi-objective optimization has been done by applying grey relational analysis to identify the levels of factors that result in the maximum strength and minimum weld seam width.