A pure copper layer was produced on a stainless-steel type 304 substrate by using a multi-beam laser metal deposition method with blue diode lasers (B-LMD) to add the antibacterial and virus inactivation effect of pure copper on a high-strength and cost-efficient material. To make a copper layer on a substrate by LMD method, beads must be formed continuously at specific intervals and each fabricated bead must be overlapped on the substrate. In this study, to fabricate a high-quality copper layer on a SS304 substrate, the effect of hatching distance (distance between each bead) was investigated. The copper layer was fabricated on the SS304 substrate with a multi-beam B-LMD method at the spot size of 233 μm varying the hatching distance. After the copper coating process, the surface roughness and cross-section of the copper layer were observed. As a result, the surface roughness became high and a large amount of voids were formed inside the layer when the hatching distance was under 150 μm. On the other hand, dilution of copper and SS304 increased as the hatching distance increased.
A bead on plate welding test of pure copper plate was conducted with a hybrid laser which combined a high-power infrared (IR) laser and a blue laser to achieve a deep penetration and spatter-less welding of pure copper. A 1.5 kW class IR laser which has the wavelength around 1000 nm and a 1.5 kW class blue diode laser which has the wavelength of 450 nm were used as a heat source. The IR laser and the blue diode laser were irradiated perpendicular to the sample at the angles of 0° and 45°, respectively. Each laser was focused onto 2 mm thick pure copper sample and combined on the surface of it as a hybrid laser. The hybrid laser was scanned on the sample at 100 mm/s varying the output power of the IR laser and the blue diode laser. While scanning the lasers, the dynamics of melt pool formation and the spatters were observed with a high-speed video camera. After laser irradiation, the cross-section of the sample was observed and the penetration depth of the bead was measured. As the results, it was found that the penetration depth of pure copper increased and the number of spatters generated per scanning length decreased with the increase of blue laser intensity. Also, it was clarified that the melt pool dynamics affects the amount of spatter generated during welding.
The 1.5kW fiber coupled blue diode laser with a fiber core diameter of 400μm was newly developed and pure copper plates were performed bead on plate welding tests. Laser welding has been usually employed near infrared ray [IR] laser with approximately 1000nm wavelength, such as a fiber laser, a disk laser, and a diode laser. However, it is difficult to weld pure copper with the IR laser due to the low light absorption rate of copper. In the blue region, on the other hand, copper has the high light absorption rate and the fluctuation of this rate with rising temperature is small. Thus, a blue diode laser is suitable for welding copper. Pure copper plates are used in this study. The high speed and high quality copper welding is required for several industries since copper is essential for various products such as fuel cells, automotive motors, and busbars for realization of a carbon-neutral society. Although blue diode lasers have been created worldwide, the keyhole welding was difficult because of the insufficiency of laser power density. Therefore, we developed the 1.5kW high-power blue diode laser and irradiated 10mmw×30mml×2mmt pure copper plates with sweep speed of 25mm/s and spot diameter of 300μm. The melting and solidification dynamics were observed with high-speed video camera and spectrometer for elucidation of welding mechanism with the blue diode laser. As the results, one of fluctuation factors was found to be presence of neutral Cu and CuO in the laser plume, which may cause instabilities due to interference them with the laser.
A hybrid laser system which combines preheating with a blue diode laser with welding with a single mode fiber laser was developed to realize a highly efficient laser welding of copper. With the hybrid laser system, the blue diode laser and the single mode fiber laser were combined coaxially and a stair shape beam profile was formed at the processing point. Each laser was irradiated to a copper sample and the output power of the blue diode laser was varied to investigate an effect of preheating with it on the welding with the single mode fiber laser. The melting and solidification dynamics of copper was evaluated with a high speed video camera and a thermo camera. As the results, it was found that the melting volume of copper and the temperature at the processing point increased by preheating with the blue diode laser. The copper wire with 2.0×3.5×50 mm was weld in 0.3sec by using hybrid laser with 1kW single mode fiber laser and 200W blue diode laser. Thus, it was concluded that a highly efficient welding of copper was achieved with the preheating with the blue diode laser.
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