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Up to now, only a limited amount of metallic materials is investigated for laser additive manufacturing (LAM). However, the demand to widen the application possibilities by enlarging the range of materials for LAM is growing fast. By now, titanium and aluminium alloys are in the focus of research. In contrast, magnesium alloys are rarely used in the field of additive manufacturing, although they possess a low density in combination with a high specific strength. Currently, magnesium structures are mainly produced by casting but during the last years, the use of wrought alloys also increased. A reason for the rare use of magnesium alloys for LAM technologies might be the high flammability of magnesium powders. This difficulty can be avoided by using magnesium wire for laser metal deposition (LMD). In the present study, the microstructural characteristics of a LMD processed AZ31 magnesium alloy are investigated. For this purpose, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used. With the help of EDX and EBSD analysis, a change of the chemical composition and micro texture with structure height was identified. The relationship of microstructure and local mechanical properties was investigated with the help of Vickers micro hardness testing. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that the microstructural characteristics of laser additive manufactured magnesium alloys differ from those of titanium and aluminium alloys. Thus, a wider application spectrum of LMD and magnesium alloys can be opened up.

The laser beam welding (LBW) process has many advantages for industrial production; however, it still has to be optimized for two-phase Ti alloys. Phase transformations and residual stresses play a crucial role for welding these alloys. Specific questions about the development of phase content during fast heating with a laser and rapid cooling can only be addressed with time-resolved in-situ experiments, avoiding artefacts from quenching. Also the residual stress development during cooling depends on the occurring phase transformations. Thus, an LBW chamber employing a fibre laser was developed for use with high-energy X-rays from a synchrotron source. Bead-on-plate welding experiments with 2.5 mm thick samples were carried out at the HZG high-energy materials science beamline (HEMS) at DESY, Hamburg. The first experiments focused on the solid-solid phase transformations in a Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Moreover, residual stresses developing during cooling were studied.

The present work investigates the effects of laser beam power, focus position and advance speed on the geometry, microstructure and mechanical properties of fiber laser beam welded Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-2Mo (denoted as Ti-6242) butt joints used for high temperature applications. Detailed microstructural and mechanical studies were performed on welds produced using optimized parameters (a laser beam power of 5 kW, a focus position of 0.0 mm and an advance speed of 6.2 m/min). The Ti-6242 base material is characterized by a globular (α+β) microstructure. The heat input during laser beam welding led to the formation of a martensitic α’-phase fusion zone. The heat affected zone consisted of globular grains and acicular crystallites. These local transformations were connected with a change in the micro-texture, average grain size and β-phase content. Furthermore, the microhardness increased from 330 HV 0.3 to 450 HV 0.3 due to the martensitic transformation. The mechanical behavior of the laser beam welded Ti-6242 butt joint loaded in tension was determined by the properties of the Ti-6242 base material. The local increase in hardness provided a shielding effect that protected the Ti-6242 butt joint against mechanical damage.

The microstructure, chemical composition, residual stress, and lattice parameter evolution of the welding zone (WZ) and heat-affected zone (HAZ) of a laser-beam-welded TiAl-based alloy were investigated. It was found that both α 2 and γ phases remain highly restrained in the WZ edge, and the stresses are relieved in the HAZ. A grain refinement mechanism is proposed, which works by heating the material to the β or α + β phase field for a short time. The lamellar colonies are refined by the Nb-enriched segregations.

An in situ highly time-resolved, high-energy X-ray diffraction investigation was carried out to observe the phase transformations of a TiAl alloy during laser beam welding. The diffraction patterns are recorded every 0.1 seconds by a fast area two-dimensional detector and plotted according to time, yielding the solidification pathway, the solid phase volume fraction, and the lattice parameter variation of different phases during the solidification and cooling process. Moreover, it is the first study that can demonstrate that the α phase without any Burgers orientation relationship, the so-called non-Burgers α, precipitates appear earlier than the Burgers α. The non-Burgers α grains are found to nucleate on the primary borides.

Heat-treatable Al-Zn alloys are promising candidates for use as structural lightweight materials in automotive and aircraft applications. This is mainly due to their high strength-to-density ratio in comparison to conventionally employed Al alloys. Laser beam welding is an efficient method for producing joints with high weld quality and has been established in the industry for many years. However, it is well known that aluminum alloys with a high Zn content or, more precisely, with a high (Zn + Mg + Cu) content are difficult to fusion weld due to the formation of porosity and hot cracks. The present study concerns the laser weldability of these hard-to-weld Al-Zn alloys. In order to improve weldability, it was first necessary to understand the reasons for weldability problems and to identify crucial influencing factors. Based on this knowledge, it was finally possible to develop an appropriate approach. For this purpose, vanadium was selected as additional filler material. Vanadium exhibits favorable thermophysical properties and, thereby, can improve the weldability of Al-Zn alloys. The effectiveness of the approach was verified by its application to several Al-Zn alloys with differing amounts of (Zn + Mg + Cu).

Crack-free dissimilar TNM-Ti6242 joints were successfully obtained by laser welding with preheating temperatures of 400 °C, 600 °C and 800 °C, in spite of the differing thermophysical properties of the used alloys. The microstructure of the joints was investigated by optical microscopy, SEM, EDX, EBSD and the local mechanical properties were determined by microhardness measurements. The microstructure coarsens with increasing preheating temperature. Homogenous mixture of both alloys in the fusion zone was achieved, even so local microsegregations of Ti, Al and Nb occurred. The fusion zone mainly consists of α2 (Ti3Al). A transition zone, present as a β/βO seam, was revealed for preheating temperatures of 400 °C and 600 °C. For preheating to 800 °C the β/βO seam was penetrated with α2 lamellas. Since the alloying elements of the other alloy were detected in the heat-affected zone, diffusion processes occurred. The average microhardness in the fusion zone of the dissimilar TNM-Ti6242 joints is independent of the preheating temperature and is higher than the base material microhardness. Comparing the microhardness in the fusion zone of similar Ti6242 and TNM joints with dissimilar TNM-Ti6242 joints, the microhardness values of the dissimilar TNM-Ti6242 joints range between the values of the similar Ti6242 and TNM joints. However, the values in the fusion zone are closer to the microhardness values of the similar TNM joint, which is caused by the mainly α2 containing fusion zone of the dissimilar TNM-Ti6242 joints.

Wire-based laser metal deposition enables to manufacture large-scale components with deposition rates significant higher compared to powder-based laser additive manufacturing techniques, which are currently working with deposition rates of only a few hundred gram per hour. However, the wire-based approach requires a significant amount of laser power in the range of several kilowatts instead of only a few hundred watts for powder-based processes. This excessive heat input during laser metal deposition can lead to process instabilities such as a non-uniform material deposition and to a limited processability, respectively. Although, numerous possibilities to monitor temperature evolution during processing exist, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the relationship between temperature and geometric shape of the deposited structure. Due to changing cooling conditions with increasing distance to the substrate material, producing a wall-like structure results in varying heights of the individual tracks. This presents challenges for the deposition of high wall-like structures and limits the use of constant process parameters. In the present study, the temperature evolution during laser metal deposition of AA5087 using constant process parameters is investigated and a scheme for process parameter adaptions in order to reduce residual stress induced componential distortions is suggested.

Purpose– Composite materials and metallic structures already compete for the next generation of single-aisle aircraft. Despite the good mechanical properties of composite materials metallic structures offer challenging properties and high cost effectiveness via the automation in manufacturing, especially when metallic structures will be welded. In this domain, metallic aircraft structures will require weight savings of approximately 20 per cent to increase the efficiency and reduce the CO2emission by the same amount. Laser beam welding of high-strength Al-Li alloy AA2198 represents a promising method of providing a breakthrough response to the challenges of lightweight design in aircraft applications. The key factor for the application of laser-welded AA2198 structures is the availability of reliable data for the assessment of their damage tolerance behaviour. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– In the presented research, the mechanical properties concerning the quasi-static tensile and fracture toughness (R-curve) of laser beam-welded AA2198 butt joints are investigated. In the next step, a systematic analysis to clarify the deformation and fracture behaviour of the laser beam-welded AA2198 four-stringer panels is conducted.Findings– AA2198 offers better resistance against fracture than the well-known AA2024 alloy. It is possible to weld AA2198 with good results, and the welds also exhibit a higher fracture resistance than AA2024 base material (BM). Welded AA2198 four-stringer panels exhibit a residual strength behaviour superior to that of the flat BM panel.Originality/value– The present study is undertaken on the third-generation airframe-quality Al-Li alloy AA2198 with the main emphasis to investigate the mechanical fracture behaviour of AA2198 BMs, laser beam-welded joints and laser beam-welded integral structures. Studies investigating the damage tolerance of welded integral structures of Al-Li alloys are scarce.

Weld defects - such as porosity and hot cracking - occur especially during the laser beam welding of high-alloyed Al-Zn alloys. This significantly limits the application range of these promising high-strength alloys. In the present study the laser weldability of different Al-Zn alloys was investigated regarding the used welding parameters and the chemical composition of the alloys. In addition, the novel approach of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht for overcoming the weldability problems was applied to the different Al-Zn alloys in order to assess its capability. It was shown that the laser weldability of Al-Zn alloys deteriorates with an increasing amount of Zn, Mg and Cu. The variation of laser beam welding parameters did not lead to any improvement of weldability. Only the use of the new approach resulted in promising welding results even for the high-alloyed Al-Zn alloys.

In the present work the mechanical behaviour of laser beam welded AZ31B alloy was studied, by changing systematically the spot size of the used fibre laser system between 200 µm and 1000 µm at different power levels between 2 kW and 8 kW. Maximum welding velocities with respect to imperfections were determined. The characterization of the obtained welds - in terms of Vickers hardness, UTS, Af and weld width, resp. weld area - was correlated with the micro-texture in dependence of the different Focus Spot Diameters and Laser Beam Power levels as well as the resulting cooling rates. Highest UTS of 94% of the base material was achieved with 200 µm Focus Spot Diameter and Laser Beam Power of 4 kW at welding velocity of 100 mm/s. By increasing the Focus Spot Diameter to 600 µm, the tensile strength was reduced to 86 % of the actual strength of the base material.

Ti6Al2Sn4Zr2Mo exhibits improved oxidation and creep properties compared to Ti6Al4V. Laser beam welding (LBW) is an approved process to receive narrow weld seams at high welding speeds with low heat input. Almost distortion free complex shaped structures can be joined with optimal parameters. For the optimisation of the LBW process the most relevant parameters are the welding speed, the laser input power and the gas shielding strategy. Using a fibre laser, the laser radiation is attenuated by a welding plume the so-called metal-vapour cloud (MVC). The MVC has a large influence on the laser input power. Therefore, an approach for reducing the MVC by optimising the shielding strategy using an additional gas flow in opposite welding direction is examined. Utilizing high-speed camera records, the effectiveness of the approach is assessed. Welded samples are evaluated by visual and radiographic inspection, metallographic assessment as well as microhardness measurements with regard to weld seam geometry, defects, microstructure and local mechanical properties. The obtained results are correlated to the used laser welding parameters.

This work deals with the effects of laser beam power, focus position and advance speed on the geometry, microstructure and mechanical properties such as the tensile strength and microhardness of autogenously fibre laser beam welded Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-2Mo (denoted as Ti-6242) butt joints used for high temperature applications. The Ti-6242 sheet employed here is characterized by a globular (α+β) microstructure. Laser beam welded butt joints consisted of a martensitic fusion zone, inhomogeneous heat affected zones and equiaxed base materials. The microhardness increased from 330 HV 0.3 in base material to 430 HV 0.3 in fusion zone due to the martensitic transformation. Butt joints showed the base material level of strength in tensile test. The local increase in microhardness provided a shielding effect that protected the Ti-6242 butt joint against mechanical damage during the static tensile load test. The predicted critical total underfill depth that does not reduce the tensile strength of the weld was determined to be 25% of the specimen thickness.

Mechanical characterization, fatigue performance and failure analysis of laser spot welds and resistance spot welds under tensile-shear loading have been investigated. Similar and dissimilar joints of dual phase advanced high-strength steel (DP780) and deep-drawing steel (DC04) of 2.0 mm thickness for application in the automotive industry were performed. The structural stress concept was used to explain fatigue lives of laser and resistance spot welded joints. The results revealed different failure types with different fatigue behaviour for laser and resistance spot welds under applied cyclic loads at “high load” and “low load” levels. Similar joints of the DP780 show the longest fatigue life at high load levels when compared with similar joints of DC04 and dissimilar joints. However, this difference disappeared when the fatigue test results were considered in terms of the structural stress, which also enabled correlation of the results for RSW and LSW spot welds with different sizes.

Future metallic airframes may contain laser beam welded clips (to the skin) between two stringers to achieve lightweight integral airframes. In this study, an investigation involving stress analysis and fatigue testing of skin-clip laser welded T-joints in 6156 T4 aluminium alloy plates was carried out. The thickness of the base plate (skin) was locally reduced between the welded joints by machining to produce “pockets” to obtain weight reduction. The effects of pocket thickness (3.0 and 1.5 mm) and socket width (the width of the full-thickness part between pockets; 11 and 20 mm) as skin-clip joint parameters on stress distributions around the weld region were studied by FE analyses of 400 mm wide plates under tension. Several numerical analyses were performed considering the effect of different locations of the tips of weld toe cracks in the T-joints, and the results obtained were compared with the experimental observations from fatigue tests of such joints in order to describe the fatigue performance of the laser welded skin-clip joints. Pocketed skin-clip joints exhibited weld region protection as a result of a reduction in the stress in the part containing the welded joint. Among the joint configurations analyzed in the absence of weld toe cracking, 3.0 mm pocket thickness with 11 mm socket width (narrowly prepared pocket design) provided almost full protection of the weld toe with little increase in stress on the opposite side of the plate containing the weld detail. However, in the presence of a weld toe crack, a region of stress concentration arose in the pocket itself, in line with the crack tip. This encouraged deviation of the crack path away from the weld toe but, if the socket width was too small, as in the narrowly prepared pocket design, the two stress fields combined and led to an increase in fatigue crack growth rate. In this study, the best fatigue performance was obtained when crack deviation into the base material occurred but remained within the socket area.

Microstructure and properties of a Mg AZ31B laser beam weld without filler are studied using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and mechanical tests. The microstructure of the weld is characterized by a narrow heat affected zone, columnar grains and precipitate coarsening in the fusion zone. Texture in the fusion zone is significantly different from the texture of the base material. The residual stress distribution observed is similar at the top and the bottom of the weld, maximum tensile residual stress values are observed in the fusion zone. Tensile tests reveal differences in the mechanical behavior of the fusion zone and the parent material, which can be related to the differences of texture and the resulting deformation mechanisms.

Microstructure, hardness and residual stresses of the laser beam overlap welds between AZ31B sheets and AZ31, AZ61 and AZ80 extruded profiles are investigated using microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The result of the investigations reveal that weld microstructure, the size of the HAZ, precipitate density and the maximum compressive residual stress values depend strongly on the Al content of the weld zone of two Mg-alloys.

The effect of different welding sequences between a 4.5 mm thick AA 6156 T6 base plate and a 2 mm thick AA 6013 T6 clip – resembling a skin-clip joint of an airframe – using a 3.3 kW Nd:YAG laser is investigated. Under cyclic loading the breakdown of such T-joints happens at one end of the clip, which is due to local residual stress concentrations. Recent measurements indicated that tensile stresses could be lower at the run-in than at the run-out locations. For a deeper investigation of this effect sheets with different welding sequences were produced. One welding sequence was made with two starting points in the centre, and a second with starting points at the clip ends. Temperature measurements were made using thermocouples to verify the heat conditions for a finite element simulation of the welding process, which is used for predictions of the residual stress distribution. Actual values of the residual stress fields were determined by neutron diffraction. The influences of the welding sequence on the measured temperatures and the residual stresses are discussed.

Dissimilar welded components joined with any kind of welding technologies gain an increasing interest due to significant improvements in engineering structures by using new materials (alloys) or new materials combinations. The present paper deals with laser welding of Al5083-H111 and Al6013-T6 and the characterization of the crystallographic texture. Fine grained Al5083 was joined with coarser grained Al6013.Whereas, Al6013 is strongly oriented dominated by a strong cube component and a much lower Goss component, the finer grained Al5083 shows a week deformation texture. The welding seam itself has a moderate cube texture with a minor fiber texture in welding direction. A small texture variation about the texture strength and the volume fraction of the fiber component was observed along the weld. Results were obtained by neutron, hard X-ray and electron diffraction.

Weight reduction is the main driving force in automotive and aircraft structural design. As a result, magnesium alloys, with their high potential for lightweight construction, have attracted a considerable amount of industrial attention. The determining criterion for the structural applications of magnesium alloys is the availability of efficient joining technologies for the construction of lightweight structures and the availability of reliable data for the assessment of their damage tolerance behaviour. Laser beam welding (LBW), as a high-speed and easily controllable process, allows the welding of complex geometric forms that are optimised in terms of mechanical stiffness, strength, production velocity and visual quality. The work accomplished in this study addresses the challenges of the LBW process for typical joint configurations using the magnesium alloy AZ31HP: butt joints, T joints and overlap joints. LBW processes were developed for use with a 3.3-kW Nd:YAG laser to optimise the mechanical performance of such joints with respect to tensile strength, fatigue, fatigue crack propagation and mechanical fracture behaviour. The relationships between the LBW process and the microstructural and mechanical properties of welds were established. Compared to state-of-the-art aerospace alloys, AZ31HP demonstrates that magnesium alloys have potential for use in structural applications, with AZ31HP being comparable to AA2024T351 and AA6061T6. Welded AZ31HP exhibits better crack resistance than the base material, so fully welded integral structures made from magnesium alloys can be used in lightweight construction.

A hollow rectangular profile, as an example of a typical structural component made of magnesium alloy sheets has been built, tested and evaluated in order to assess its behaviour during axial crushing. The profiles were joined from plane sheets of AZ31 and ZE10, respectively, by laser beam welding and were then tested in compression. Numerical simulations have been conducted to understand the complex interplay between hardening characteristics of the materials under investigation, profile cross-section variation and energy absorption. The results from the compression testing of the profiles show that the welds are not the source of damage initiation and failure. The performance of the magnesium profiles in terms of dissipated specific energy is confirmed for small and intermediate displacements to be comparable to that of aluminium profiles. For large displacements, however, the shear-type failure mode of magnesium causes a sharp drop of the crushing force and thus limits the energy absorption. These findings demonstrate the requirement for an alloy and wrought magnesium process development specifically for crash applications which aims at progressive hardening along with high ductility for improving the bending and shear behaviour.

In this work, a defocused laser was used to modify the residual stress state in AA2198-T8 C(T)100 specimens with the goal of retarding fatigue crack growth. The manuscript provides a description of the process, the resulting changes of the material properties and the modified fatigue crack growth behaviour. The performed experiments, including thermocouple measurements, microscopical examinations, micro hardness measurements, residual stress measurements and fatigue crack growth measurements under constant amplitude loading show, that via laser heating a substantial retardation of fatigue crack growth can be achieved.

Laser welding of advanced Al-Li alloys has been developed to meet the increasing demand for light-weight and high-strength aerospace structures. However, welding of high-strength Al-Li alloys can be problematic due to the tendency for hot cracking. Finding suitable welding parameters and filler material for this combination currently requires extensive and costly trial and error experimentation. The present work describes a novel coupled model to predict hot crack susceptibility (HCS) in Al-Li welds. Such a model can be used to shortcut the weld development process. The coupled model combines finite element process simulation with a two-level HCS model. The finite element process model predicts thermal field data for the subsequent HCS hot cracking prediction. The model can be used to predict the influences of filler wire composition and welding parameters on HCS. The modeling results have been validated by comparing predictions with results from fully instrumented laser welds performed under a range of process parameters and analyzed using high-resolution X-ray tomography to identify weld defects. It is shown that the model is capable of accurately predicting the thermal field around the weld and the trend of HCS as a function of process parameters.