Laser texturing of steel for improving the laser welding performance of steel to aluminium

One of the challenges in the automotive industry is to reduce the carbon emission of manufactured vehicles.  This can be done, for instance, by incorporating lightweight metallic alloys (e.g. aluminium alloys) with more generic automotive modulus (often made of uncoated mild steel) in order to reduce the total mass of a vehicle.  Unfortunately, joining these two dissimilar metals together is a difficult task because chemical reactions between aluminium alloy and uncoated low carbon steel lead to the formation of intermetallic compounds (IMC) at the metals interface during a welding process and thus the mechanical properties of the welds are deteriorated.  

This project aims to investigate a nanosecond laser texturing process for improving the laser spot welding performance of two dissimilar metals, i.e. aluminium alloy to uncoated low carbon steel, which are used in the automotive industry c automotive modulus (often made of uncoated mild steel) in order to reduce the total mass of a vehicle.

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For more information please contact Dr Krystian Wlodarczyk, K.L.Wlodarczyk@hw.ac.uk

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