Interface microstructure and mechanical properties of laser welding copper-steel dissimilar joint

Relatively the high reflectivity of copper to CO2 laser led to the difficulty in joining copper to steel using laser welding. In this paper, a new method was proposed to complete the copper-steel laser butt welding. The scarf joint geometry was used, i.e., the sides of the copper and steel were in obtuse and acute angles, respectively. During the welding process, the laser beam was fixed on the steel side and the dilution ratio of copper to steel was controlled by properly selecting the deviation of the laser beam. The offset of laser beam depended on the scarf angle between the copper and steel, the thickness of plate and the processing parameters used in the laser welding. The microstructure near the interface between Cu plate and the intermixing zone was investigated. Experimental results showed that for the welded joint with high dilution ratio of copper, there was a transition zone with numerous filler particles near the interface. However, if the dilution ratio of copper is low, the transition zone is only generated near the upper side of the interface. At the lower side of the interface, the turbulent bursting behavior in the welding pool led to the penetration of liquid metal into Cu. The welded joint with lower dilution ratio of copper in the fusion zone exhibited higher tensile strength. On the bases of the microstructural evaluation at the interface of the welded joint, a physical model was proposed to describe the formation mechanism of the dissimilar joint with low dilution ratio of copper. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.