Comparison of continuous wave and pulsed wave laser welding effects

There are two types of lasers, continuous wave and pulsed wave lasers. The welding parameters normally associated with continuous wave lasers are laser power, beam diameter and welding speed. In pulsed wave lasers the parameters used are pulse duration, energy and beam diameter. In this paper a comparison of welds obtained using the same process parameters in continuous and pulsed wave lasers is made. In order to have the same welding parameters, for both lasers, the tests were carried out using interaction time and power density as the main process parameters. The results show that when these parameters are used the two lasers show very dissimilar behaviours in terms of penetration depth. Also the pulsed wave laser showed higher efficiency when compared to the continuous wave laser under the same welding conditions. The effect of the peak power density was also evaluated. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.