Heat sources interaction of laser-arc hybrid welding

The investigation on the interaction of laser induced plasma and arc plasma in the laser-arc hybrid welding process benefits the understanding of complicate physical phenomenon and the optimization of welding parameters.So far,the research materials about this are few.A detail experiment of laser-arc hybrid welding was carried out on 3mm thickness 316L stainless steel by a 5kW CO2 laser together with a TIG(tungsten inert gas) welder.A dimensionless parameter,the increment of melting efficiency of hybrid welding δ,is defined to indicate the heat sources interaction of laser and arc.With the bead shape,plasma shape and δ,the effect of heat sources distance and energy ratio of laser and arc was semi-quantitative analyzed.The results show that with the optimized combination of welding parameters,δ can reach 83.6%.Moreover,the preheating of arc on the work-piece can improve the efficiency of laser power and enhance the heat sources interaction,but the laser-arc interaction is the key mechanism to improve the heat sources interaction.