Journal of Welding Science

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Recent research suggests that extraordinary combinations of strength and ductility can be achieved in the so-called TRIP steels. With the development of these steels, welding with small weld nugget size and acceptable strength are needed. For these reasons present study was carried out to investigate the effect of heat input onweld size, microstructure and the hardness of the welded metal of 0.4%C- 4%Al δ-TRIP steel after continues fiber-laser welding process. To achieve this goal a bead on plate welding with three different values of heat input 28, 60 and 80 J/mm were used.The results of welding process revealed that by increasing the heat input, cooling rate decreased and the volume percent of the δ-ferrite in weld metal increased due to the availability of sufficient time for partitioning of Al in high heat input which leads to the stable δ-ferrite and as a result the difference between the hardness of the weld metal in comparison to the base metal decreased.

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In this paper, laser beam welding of a rectangular piece of steel was simulated using Fluent software. Physical properties of analytical field was constant and its changes with temperature was ignored. In the present work, effect of tool speed and laser power on temperature distribution of workpiece surface and different deeps in the plane of symmetry and also maximum of temperature and depth of penetration were investigated. Using a macro code, geometry generation and meshing of the analytical field by helping required geometric  parameters were provided for software. Moreover, laser radiation power was exerted by writing an UDF in the fluent software. In this case, it was assumed that the workpiece is stationary and gaussian thermal source model defined in UDF moves with the intended speed. Results show that at a constant power, maximum temperature of the workpiece decreases with increasing heat source speed, moreover, in this case, gradient of temperature in front of the workpiece and behind of it, increases and decreases respectively. It is found that the temperature in the depth of the workpiece increases with increasing the power.

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Laser welding is a novel method for direct joining of metals and polymers, which leads to a mechanical and chemical bond between metal and polymer. In this study, feasibility of dissimilar joining between St12 and polycarbonate is studied theoretically. Then, the ND: YAG laser is implemented to join St12 and Polycarbonate. Empirical results indicate creation of a joint between St12 and polycarbonate. In order to conduct thermomechanical analysis of the welding process, the finite element model has been developed by Abaqus software. In addition, the cylindrical-involution-normal (CIN) heat source model was used to describe the laser power distribution and FORTRAN software has been used to define the thermal model in welding simulation. Comparison of experimental and simulation results shows that the finite element model is capable of predicting weld width, and therefore the results of the finite element model are verified. Therefore, the finite element model is used to predict residual stresses. The results disclose that dissimilar bonding creates residual tension stresses on the metal surface and compressive residual stresses on the polymer surface.
 
 

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In this research, dissimilar welding of NiTi shape memory alloy to AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel Archwires was investigated. For this purpose, common straight orthodontic archwire with rectangular cross-section and dimensions of (0.635 × 0.432 mm) were selected and the laser welding technique was used to connect the wires. The microstructure, chemical composition and phasesin the weld zone of the joints werestudied with Optical microscopy (OM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with EDS analysis system, focused X-ray diffraction (Micro-XRD).Also, the mechanical properties of the weld zone were investigated by using Vickers microhardness test. Microstructure investigation showed that the obtained microstructure from the laser weld of these alloys has a dendritic and non-homogeneous structure. According to XRD analysis, brittle intermetallic compounds such as Fe₂Ti, Cr₂Ti, TiNi₃, and Ti₂Ni wereformed during laser welding in the weld zone. Formation of these brittle intermetallics caused increasing the hardness of the weld zoneabout 800 HV. and decreasing the mechanical properties. Also, Fe₂Ti intermetallic particles mainly formed in the weld region near the NiTi fusion zone which results in stress concentration, micro-cracks formation and dropping joints mechanical properties. Therefore, a suitable modification process is required to control the chemical composition of the weld zone and improving the joint properties of dissimilar laser welded archwires of these alloys.

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The non-continuous laser beam in pulsed lasers allows the mechanical peening between two consecutive beams on a still hot weld bead. At a very short time (20, 150 and 300 ms) after laser pulse application, mechanical peening was performed on the welding bead. To achieve these short times, the light sensor detects the nth laser pulse and the mechanical arm starts moving. Upon reaching the tip of the pin near the workpiece, the n + 1th pulse was irradiated to the workpiece surface, and so the pin impact to the weld bead after traveling a short distance. Desirable mechanical properties were obtained at the highest time (300 ms) and highest pressure (6 bars). In this time and pressure the weld beads were not broken due to bending forces of peening.

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In this research similar joining of NiTi shape memory alloy was studied. For this purpose, NiTi alloy in the form of wires with circular cross section possessing martensitic phase structure at room temperature was used. By utilizing Nd:YAG pulsed laser welding method followed by optimizing its technical parameters, a defectless joint in terms of appearance and metallurgical properties was obtained. In the next step, the effect of various pulsed laser duration time on properties of the obtained similar joint of NiTi was investigated. Moreover, the resultant microstructures were studied using optical microscope (OP) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) equipped with chemical analysis of EDS. Furthermore, the samples prepared under different pulsed laser duration time conditions were characterized by using tensile and micro-hardness tests. Investigating the results of the performed evaluations revealed that higher levels of heat input has resulted in grain growth, dissolution of precipitations as well as reduction in hardness and ultimate tensile strength of the samples in the joint zone. 

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