Effects of filler wire feed on the efficiency of laser welding

The range of laser welding applications is widening from applications in car manufacturing to normal machine building. Laser welding has suffered from the tight demands for component and joint manufacture. This investigation studies the effect of various welding and filler wire feed variables on the weld quality and efficiency of the laser welding process. Welding was found to be possible with several parameter combinations and the width of air gap used was 1 mm, when the material thickness was 6 mm. The utilization of filler wire feed introduces some new parameters to the laser welding process. There is a noticeable effect from the wire feed position and feed angle on the welding process. The variations, like lack of penetration, of weld quality, was caused by inaccurate positioning of filler wire and can be compensated by the adjustment of the filler wire feed rate and the energy input to some extent. The efficiency of laser welding with filler wire is equal to that of autogenous welding, but the overall energy input must be increased according to the air gap volume. Filler wire feed provides the process with less stringent demands, but requires additional energy input to the workpiece.