Fiber laser welding of austenitic steel and commercially pure copper butt joint

The fiber laser welding of austenitic stainless steel and commercially pure copper in butt joint configuration without filler or intermediate material is presented. In order to melt stainless steel directly and melt copper via heat conduction a defocused laser beam was used with an offset to stainless steel. During mechanical tests the weld seam was more durable than heat affected zone of copper so samples without defects could be obtained. Three process variants of offset of the laser beam were applied. The following tests were conducted: tensile test of weldment, intermediate layer microhardness, optical metallography, study of the chemical composition of the intermediate layer, fractography. Measurements of electrical resistivity coefficients of stainless steel, copper and copper–stainless steel weldment were made, which can be interpreted or recalculated as the thermal conductivity coefficient. It shows that electrical resistivity coefficient of cooper–stainless steel weldment higher than that of stainless steel. The width of intermediate layer between stainless steel and commercially pure copper was 41–53 µm, microhardness was 128–170 HV_0.01.     

Optodynamic study of multiple pulses micro drilling

This paper describes an analysis of pulsed lasers micro-drilling of different metals. Study focuses to an optodynamic phenomenon which appears as thermal effects induced by laser light pulses and leads to dynamic process manifested as ultrasonic shock waves propagating into the sample material. The shock waves are detected by a non-contact optical method by using arm compensated Michelson. Monitoring of the main parameters of the micro drilling such as material ablation rate and efficiency was realized by analysis of the optodynamic signals. The process is characterized by decreasing ablation rate that leads to the finite hole depth. The experimental part of study comprehends a comparison between various metals. In order to describe decreasing ablation rate a theoretical model based on the energy balance is proposed. It considers the energy/heat transfer from the laser beam to the material and predicts a decreasing drilling rate with an increasing number of successive laser pulses. According to the proposed model, the finite depth of the hole appears as a consequence of the increasing surface area through which the energy of the laser beam is conducted away to the material around the processed area. Decreasing ablation rate and the finite hole depth predicted by model were in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Laser processing of bulk Al–12Si alloy: influence of microstructure on thermal properties

The feasibility of enhancing the thermal conductivity of an alloy via microstructural refinement was examined using Al–12%Si alloy as a model material. Al–12Si alloy samples were fabricated at different process parameters using laser engineered net shaping (LENS?) and the effect of microstructural features on the thermal conductivity was studied and compared with conventionally cast alloy. The large difference in melting points and laser light absorptivities of Si and Al as well as the low melt viscosity of Al–12Si alloy resulted in a very small process window to successfully fabricate bulk Al–12Si alloy samples using LENS?. Comparison of microstructural features of laser-processed samples with cast Al–12Si alloy showed significant refinement in eutectic Si for laser processed samples. Microstructural refinement not only improved the thermal conductivity of Al–12Si alloy but also compensated the detrimental effect of porosity on thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of cast alloy varied between 82 and 93?W/mK, which is ～21–76% lower than the values exhibited by laser-processed samples in the range 103–153?W/mK. The results of LENS? fabrication, microstructural evolution and thermal properties of Al–12Si alloy bulk structures can be extended to other immiscible alloys and metal matrix composites for a variety of engineering applications.     

Thermal conductivity of e-beam coatings

We present the results of the study on the thermal conductivity of different thin film materials produced by conventional thermal evaporation. The main features of the thermal pulse method employed for the measurement of the thermal conductivity are described. Thermal conductivity can be measured by determining the traveling time of a thermal wave propagating trough the film. A pump laser beam is directed onto a sample consisting of a thin transparent test layer and a totally absorbing substrate for the laser wavelength. As a consequence of the laser pulse, a temperature profile builds up at the substrate-film interface. A thermal pulse starts to diffuse from the substrate-film interface to the surface of the layer. Therefore, the temperature rise at the surface of the test layer starts with a time delay with respect to the laser pulse. The time delay depends on the propagation time of the thermal wave through the layer and is related to the thermal conductivity and the thickness of the layer. Measurements are evaluated by calculations based on the finite difference method. The results show that the analyzed thin films have lower thermal conductivity than the corresponding materials in bulk form.     

Thermal conductivity and interface thermal resistance of Si film on Si substrate determined by photothermal displacement interferometry

An in situ, noncontact, photothermal displacement interferometer for performing thermal diffusivity measurements on bulk and thin-film materials has been developed. Localized transient surface motion is generated through photothermoelastic coupling of a pulsed, heating laser beam to the sample under investigation. The maximum surface displacement is found to be linearly dependent on the laser power while the proportionality is a function of the thermal diffusivity. Both thin-film conductivity and film/substrate interface thermal resistance are derived from the measured, effective thermal conductivity by employing simple heat-flow analysis. Wedge-shaped Si films, vacuum deposited on single crystal Si wafers are studied with this technique. A sample with oxide layer removed by ion bombardment of the wafer surface prior to film deposition shows the same film conductivity as a sample film deposited on an as-cast wafer, while the uncleaned sample exhibits higher interface thermal resistance. It is found that the thin-film thermal conductivity is somewhat smaller than the bulk value. However, the existence of an interface thermal resistance, when combined with film thermal conductivity, can result in an effective thermal conductivity as low as two orders of magnitude lower than the bulk value.Currently supported by the LLE fellowship     

Ultrabroadband strong light absorption based on thin multilayered metamaterials

Light absorbers have drawn intensive attention as crucial components for solar‐energy harvesting, thermal emission tailoring, modulators, etc. However, achievement of light absorbers with wide bandwidth remains a challenge thus far. Here, a thin, unprecedentedly ultrabroadband strong light absorber is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which consists of periodic taper arrays constructed by an alumina–chrome multilayered metamaterial (MM) on a gold substrate. This MM can change from a hyperbolic material to an anisotropic dielectric material at different frequency ranges and the special material features are the fundamental origins of the ultrabroadband absorption. The absorber is quite insensitive to the incident angle, and can be insensitive to the polarization. One two‐dimensional periodic array of 400‐nm height MM tapers is fabricated. The measured absorption is over 90% over almost the entire solar spectrum, reaching an average level of 96%, and remains high (above 85%) even in the longer‐wavelength range till 4 μm. The proposed absorbers open up a new avenue to realize broadband thin light‐harvesting structures.     

Specific features of the welding of metals by radiation of high-power fiber laser

The properties of the plasma that results from the laser welding of metals at various powers of the 10-kW ytterbium-doped fiber laser are experimentally studied. A projection system with an image intensifier based on a copper-vapor laser is employed for the direct observation of metal surface in the course of the laser welding in the presence of the high-intensity background illumination. A method for the shadow photographing is proposed for the analysis of the presence of metal vapor in plasma, since such vapor can lead to the reflection of the laser radiation in the course of welding.     

Utilization of light scattering in transmission laser welding of medical devices

This paper reports on optimization of material parameters in transmission laser welding of polymers including light absorption, light scattering and the thermal properties of the polymers. A criterion for making an optimized transmission laser weld between a transparent polymer part and an absorbing and scattering polymer part is formulated as a required thickness of the melt-zone in the transparent part with a corresponding minimum-line-energy-for-welding (MLEW). Experimental data of MLEW are presented for a medical device application involving joining polyethylene-octene parts for various concentrations of near-infrared absorber and titanium dioxide light scattering particles. Numerical and analytical models yield good agreement to the experimental data and enable optimization of the transmission laser welding process. By utilization of light scattering, the laser line-energy required for joining two polymer parts can be reduced by a factor up to three, enabling a corresponding reduction of the cycle time in the manufacturing process.     

超声换能器带宽对光声成像的影响

研究了不同尺寸吸收体产生的光声压的频谱特性：对于厘米量级、毫米量级和几百个微米量级的吸收体,产生光声压频谱的主要范围分别约为20～300kHz、70kHz～2．5MHz和400kHz～20MHz;讨论了不同频率范围的光声信号对重建图像的影响,低频段的光声信号能反映物体的非边界区域,而高频段的光声信号能突出物体的细微结构,尤其是物体的边界特征。提出了不同尺寸的吸收体要选用或设计不同带宽范围的探测器进行检测的方法．当探测器的带宽范围与光声压频谱范围基本吻合时,损失的频率成份较少,重建的光声图像效果较好,这一结论在仿真和实验结果中都得到了证明。实验用的光源为YAG激光器,波长为532nm,重复频率为30Hz,脉宽为7ns,探测器为针状的PVDF膜水听器,接收面积的直径为1mm。     

Effects of laser operating parameters on metals micromachining with ultrafast lasers

180 femtoseconds (1 kHz) and 10 picoseconds (1-50 kHz) ultrafast laser micro-structuring of the metals Ti alloy, Al and Cu have been studied for the purpose of industrial application. The effects of some key laser operating parameters were investigated. The evolution of surface morphology revealed that laser pulses overlap in a range around the spatial FWHM can help to achieve optimal residual surface roughness. While observed ablation rate (unit: μm³ per pulse) changed dramatically with repetition rate due to the combined effects of plasma absorption, residual thermal energy and phase transition, higher throughput can be achieved with higher repetition rate. This study also indicated that residual surface roughness is almost independent of repetition rate at 10 ps temporal pulse length. The ablation depth is approximately proportional to the number of overscan; however, machining accuracy deteriorates, especially for femtosecond laser processing and metals with low thermal conductivity and short electron-phonon coupling time.     

Heating of a sample with a laser pulse

The transient temperature associated with the bulk absorption of a rectangular laser pulse in a solidstate sample of finite size is calculated analytically and analyzed. Radiation is incident on the frontal surface with an arbitrary surface thermal conductivity. The opposite surface is thermostatically controlled and maintained at a constant equilibrium temperature. The general solution is obtained for pulses of arbitrary duration. The pulse duration is determined with respect to the relaxation time of the nonstationary thermal diffusion (it is the characteristic time of the problem). The limiting cases of the adiabatic insulation and isothermal contact at the frontal surface are considered, and the criteria for surface and bulk light absorption are derived for both cases. The temperature distributions are numerically simulated and examined for long and short pulses, as well as for different values of the light absorption coefficient and the surface thermal conductivity of the frontal surface.     

808nm大功率半导体激光迭阵偏振耦合技术

随着半导体激光器在工业、军事、核能等领域的应用越来越多,单个迭阵输出的光功率密度已经不能满足实际的需求,这就需要将多个半导体激光迭阵的光束耦合成为一个共同的光束,以提高输出功率和亮度.所以采用怎样的光束耦合技术能实现高亮度、高质量的激光输出就成了一个关键性的问题.对于该技术的研究,国内还没有实验方面的报道.主要介绍了大功率半导体激光器偏振耦合原理、实验的技术路线,以及对808nm半导体激光迭阵进行耦合实验的结果及分析.对2个bar、功率为40W/bar的808nm连续半导体激光迭阵,实现偏振耦合的总效率超过90%,聚焦得直径为3mm光斑,输出功率达到134W,总体效率超过84%.对7个bar、峰值功率100W/ba、r占空比20%的808nm准连续半导体激光迭阵进行了偏振耦合,其效率达到67%,得到4.5mm×4.5mm的光斑.     

Method for creating hollow light beams with local intensity minima and possibilities for their application

We propose and experimentally realize methods for forming light beams with local spatial intensity minima of different types (hollow light beams), based on application of specially shaped linear optics phase elements. The fields with local intensity minima, obtained as a result of phase conversion, are comparable with respect to transverse dimensions, power, and intensity gradient to the initial gaussian beam focused by means of a spherical lens. The optical layouts were assembled using photostable optical elements and therefore make it possible to create high-power laser fields suitable not only for manipulation of microparticles but also for laser machining of materials, in particular laser welding of metals. Using a phase element with planar symmetry, we can select the optimal laser beam profile that will ensure no burning on the line of contact between the ends of the parts to be welded for high penetration and will make it possible to achieve the maximum possible strength of the weld joint for a specified laser radiation power.     

Thermal modelling of laser welding and related processes: a literature review

The main emphasis of this review is on thermal modelling and prediction of laser welding in metals. However as similar techniques are employed to model conventional welding processes such as arc, resistance and friction, as well as related processes such as alloying, cladding and surface hardening, part of this review is given over to the modelling of these processes where appropriate. The time frame of the review is up to the year 2002.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of laser shock synchronous welding and forming of Copper/Aluminum

A novel laser shock synchronous welding and forming method is introduced, which utilizes laser-induced shock waves to accelerate the flyer plate towards the base plate to achieve the joining of dissimilar metals and forming in a specific shape of mold. The samples were obtained with different laser energies and standoff distances. The surface morphology and roughness of the samples were greatly affected by the laser energy and standoff distances. Fittability was investigated to examine the forming accuracy. The results showed that the samples replicate the mold features well. Straight and wavy interfaces with un-bonded regions in the center were observed through metallographic analysis. Moreover, Energy Disperse Spectroscopy analysis was conducted on the welding interface, and the results indicated that a short-distance elemental diffusion emerged in the welding interface. The nanoindentation hardness of the welding regions was measured to evaluate the welding interface. In addition, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method was employed to simulate the welding and forming process. It was shown that different standoff distances significantly affected the size of the welding regions and interface waveform characteristics. The numerical analysis results indicated that the opposite shear stress direction and effective plastic strain above a certain threshold are essential to successfully obtain welding and forming workpiece.     

Porous metal absorbers for underwater sound

Rubber has traditionally been used for underwater sound absorption. Porous metal is a relatively lightweight material and also has higher strength than rubber. However, exactly how porous metals can be used as effective underwater sound absorbers remains unclear. This paper shows how to use porous metal absorbers so that they work well under water, even under fairly constrained conditions. A method of nondimensional analysis is proposed that allows identification of vital characteristics. This means that such characteristics can be varied and the absorbers themselves filled with different types of viscous fluids. Such analysis suggests that the sound absorption coefficient of porous metals does not always increase when there are either increases in porosity or decreases in average pore size. The same method of analysis can show how, by choice of the right characteristics to choose a suitable viscous fluid, a porous metal absorber can be built that takes up little space but still effectively absorbs underwater sounds at low frequencies.     

Hand-held laser welding of metals using fibre optics

A fibre optic delivery system has for the first time been used in laser welding of metals. The optical fibre is flexible and has a length of 140 cm. It can transmit pulsed energies from a Nd-YAG laser in excess of 25 J with an efficiency of 85%. Potential applications in industry and in dentistry are discussed.     

Thermal conductivity: A review of some important developments

Some recent developments are presented which relate to the thermal conductivity of metals and its measurement. These include the influence of sample size on the electronic thermal conductivity of very pure metals, the thermal conductivity minimum of aluminium and a few other metals at sub-normal temperatures, the high-temperature thermal conductivity and increasing Lorenz function of platinum, with particular reference to the experiments of Flynn and O'Hagan (1967), the thermal conductivity of molten metals and the recently reported Lorenz functions decreasing with increase in temperature to well below the theoretical value, and the encouraging results of an investigation in progress at the Thermophysical Properties Research Center (TPRC) on direct electrical heating methods for the measurement of metallic thermal conductivities to high temperatures. Modern computer techniques avoid the restrictions and approximations introduced in the many existing methods and allow thermal conductivity to be accurately evaluated from the observed temperature profile. This method has the additional advantage that many other properties can be obtained to high temperatures for the same sample and experimental conditions. The account shows that despite the amount of effort already devoted to thermal conductivity determinations, this still remains a most rewarding field requiring further accurate measurements.     

Cutting and welding using a CO2 laser

Of all the types of lasers now available, the CO₂ laser is particularly suitable for materials working. It has a very high efficiency (15–20%) and a high out-put power (up to several kW). When the laser light is focused by means of a lens or a mirror, a c.w. power density of more than 10⁹ W cm^-2 can be attained. The laser need not be used in vacuum.

The CO₂ laser is a suitable cutting tool for numerous materials. These include metals such as titanium or steel; combustible materials such as paper, textiles and wood; and plastics. The CO₂ laser can also cut hard and brittle materials such as aluminum oxide and silicon carbide. If metals are cut in an oxidizing atmosphere, the cutting speed may be increased. The cutting width, however, is determined by the size of the laser spot. Another important field of application is the growth of single crystals.

Experiments are reported in which the CO₂ laser was used for welding steel, titanium, plastics, quartz, and glass. The advantages of the laser for this application are discussed. A comparative study of laser and electron beam techniques is included.     

Improving the time-averaged thermal efficiency of a laser beam by acoustooptic correction of the directional pattern

Applicability of the acoustooptic method for raising the time-averaged thermal efficiency of laser radiation is substantiated theoretically and confirmed experimentally. The effect produced by laser radiation on materials being processed (laser cutting, welding, engraving, etc.) has a threshold in light intensity. Importantly, a beam with the most frequently used normal (Gaussian) angular distribution of intensity is not optimal from the technological viewpoint. A method proposed for its optimization is based on acoustooptic refraction, i.e., fast nonlinear scanning of the initial beam around its central position, which improves (at certain values of the parameters) the time-averaged angular distribution of the beam intensity. In the experiment, the thermal efficiency of laser radiation is raised by several times.