Effect of magnetic field on plasma control during CO2 laser welding

During high power CO2 laser beam welding, the plasma above the keyhole has a shielding effect that it not only absorbs part of the laser energy but al so defocuses the laser beam. As a result, the welding efficiency and the as pect ratio of the welds are influenced. In order to reduce the effect of pl asma. helium as a plasma control gas has been used successfully and effecti vely. However, the cost of helium in Southeast Asia is extremely high and t herefore the production cost is significantly increased when helium is used as a continuous bleeding plasma control gas. To search for an alternative plasma control technique. feasibility in using magnetic effect as a control tool is explored in this paper. The influences of the magnetic held streng th, laser power, welding speed, field direction and shielding gas (e.g. hel ium and argon) on the penetration depth and the width of bead were also inv estigated. Experimental results indicated that the magnetic field can influ ence the shielding effect of the plasma without using plasma control gas. I t was found that at a suitable magnetic field strength the penetration dept h was increased by about 7%. but no significant difference on the width of bead was found. Moreover, it was shown that the plasma control effect can b e achieved at low magnetic field strength and the penetration depth can be increased significantly under argon atmosphere. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science:L td. All rights reserved.