Study of mode transition in three-dimensional laser beam oscillating welding of aluminum alloy

Although 2-d (two-dimensional) beam oscillation can reduce the porosity defects during laser welding of aluminum alloys, it distributes the heat input, resulting in a higher power required to form a capillary. Therefore, this research draws attention to an alternative approach, which is considered to be beneficial to laser absorption in oscillation laser beam welding, 3-d (three-dimensional) oscillation of the laser beam. (3-d oscillation means that the laser spot moves on the two-dimensional plane and the defocus change simultaneously, causing the heat input to change) An experiment was designed where the variation of oscillation frequency leads to significant changes in capillary behavior. The result shows that the increase of vertical oscillation can promote the formation of a capillary. When the oscillation frequency reaches some special values, the capillary appears and disappears periodically, such as the vertical oscillating frequency is 5 Hz, rotation oscillating frequency is 200 Hz. Meanwhile, welding pores are generally distributed at the position where the capillary begins to disappear. The reason for promoting capillary formation during 3-d laser beam oscillation, and the change of normalized temperature, which is meaningful for understanding the welding mode transition, is illustrated by a simplified model. Compared with traditional linear welding, the experimental results show that it is possible to obtain lower porosity seam during 3-d laser beam oscillation welding in low feed rate, and the mechanism of stabilizing the molten pool is discussed qualitatively.