Wire deposition by a laser-induced boiling front (original) (raw)

Optics & Laser Technology, 2015

Abstract

ABSTRACT In laser materials processing the addition of material by wire is an option for techniques like laser welding, laser cladding or rapid prototyping. The stability of the wire deposition is strongly dependent on the wire interaction with the laser beam. For leading position wire feeding, high speed imaging was applied to study the melt transfer from the wire tip to the workpiece during keyhole welding. The observations revealed that a very stable concave processing front forms at the wire tip. A boiling front is established as an extension of the keyhole and the melt film at the front is sheared downwards by the ablation pressure of boiling. The deposition of the molten wire into the weld zone is smooth and controllable. Various wire front geometries and melt transitions are compared for different parameters. The option of laterally oscillating the laser beam is investigated and the interaction mechanism involved is discussed. Wire deposition by inducing a boiling front is explained here for the first time, which should promote future applications use of this very promising technique.

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