Laser welding of complex aluminium structures

Abstract

Automotive manufacturing is making significant strides towards producing lighter but stronger vehicles. Developments in high strength steels and lightweight materials, especially aluminium, have contributed to these advances. The body shell contributes nearly 25% of a car's weight. Current predictions estimate the contribution of aluminium in a car to be of the order of 10% of the total vehicle weight, whereas the use of aluminium alloys in car body manufacture could lead to potential weight savings of up to 43%. The use of aluminium is expected to grow in body in white and tailored welded blank applications within the automotive sector. Complex joint configurations are encountered in spaceframe assembly. One such joint structure, which involves the welding of a rectangular section to a flat plate, has been considered in the work reported. Traditionally, a MIG welding solution would be adopted to manufacture such a joint. Work was performed to establish the feasibility of using laser welding to manufacture the component and to compare the laser and MIG processes. A fibre optic delivered Nd-YAG laser beam, manipulated with an articulated arm robot, was successfully used to weld the tube to the aluminium plate. Spatter free welds with no externally visible porosity were achieved and no cracking was observed in any weld cross-section examined. Mechanical tests indicated that the static strength of the laser welds was lower than that achieved by MIG welding, which is attributed to the lower load bearing area in the laser welded joints.