Lasers in Manufacturing and Materials Processing
2022
In this study, a pulsed Nd:YAG laser welding method is implemented to join Ti-G2 (1 mm thick) to AA3105-O (0.5 mm thick) via a ring of spots filled with AlScZr alloy (0.15 mm thick). The filler material improved the weld’s microstructure and mechanical properties by reducing the undesirable intermetallic compounds (IMCs) such as TiAl2 and TiAl3 in the aluminium re-solidified zone near the titanium/aluminium interface. The joints having AlScZr filler were mostly failed at Al heat affected zone (HAZ) during the tensile shear test. The addition of zirconium to binary Al–Sc system formed a substitutional solid-solution in which 50 wt% Zr+10 wt% Ti replaced Al3(Sc,Zr,Ti). Scandium had a strengthening effect by solid-solution and precipitation hardening effect due to the formation of Al3(Sc,Zr) particles. The joint strength rose from 86% (of the base Al strip) for autogenously laser weld to 102% with filler metal. Hardness increased steadily at the Ti/Al interaction zone, and the maximum hardness was reduced from 650 HV to 570 HV when filler metal was utilized.