Laser welding of titanium alloy tubes

In the welding of titanium alloy pipe factory, the welding depth is determined by the thickness of titanium pipe. In this way, the production goal is to improve formability by reducing the welding width, while achieving higher speeds. When choosing the most suitable laser, one must not only consider the beam quality, but also consider the accuracy of the tube rolling machine. In addition, the limitation of reducing the light spot must be considered before the error in the size of the tube rolling machine can take effect.

There are many dimensional problems in titanium tube welding, however, the main factor affecting the welding is the joint on the welded box. Once the titanium plate is formed and ready for welding, the characteristics of the weld include: titanium plate clearance, severe/slight welding misalignment, and changes in the weld center line. The gap determines how much material is used to form the pool. Too much pressure will lead to excess titanium alloy welded pipe top or inner diameter material. On the other hand, serious or slight welding misalignment can lead to poor welding shape.

In both cases, after the titanium plate is cut and cleaned, it is rolled up and then sent to the welding site. In addition, coolant is used to cool the induction coils used in the heating process. Finally, some of the coolant will be used in the extrusion process. Here, a large force is applied to the extrusion pulley to avoid porosity in the welding area; However, the use of greater extrusion pressure will result in an increase in burrs (or bead). Therefore, specially designed knives are used to remove burrs both inside and outside the tube. One of the main advantages of the high-frequency welding process is that it enables high-speed machining of titanium tubes. However, as is typical in most solid-phase forges, high-frequency welded contacts are not easily tested reliably using conventional non-destructive techniques. Welding cracks may occur in flat areas of low-strength joints that cannot be detected using conventional methods and may lack reliability in some demanding automotive applications.

Traditionally, titanium tube manufacturers have chosen to complete the welding process with tungsten gas shielded arc welding (GTAW). The GTAW creates a welding arc between two non-expendable tungsten electrodes. At the same time, inert shielding gas is introduced from the gun to shield the electrodes, generate ionized plasma flow, and protect the molten pool. This is an established and understood process that will repeat the quality of the welding process. In this way, the success of the welding process in the titanium alloy pipe factory depends on the integration of all individual technologies, so it must be treated as a complete system.

In all titanium tube welding applications, the edges of the titanium plate are melted and solidified when the edges of the titanium tube are squeezed together using a clamp holder. However, the unique property of laser welding is that it has a high energy beam density. The laser beam not only melts the surface of the material, but also creates a keyhole, so that the weld is very narrow in shape. To weld titanium alloy tubes, a flat titanium plate is formed first, and then its shape is shaped into a round tube. Once formed, the joints of the titanium alloy tube must be welded together. This weld greatly affects the formability of the part. Therefore, in order to obtain a welding shape that can meet the stringent testing requirements in the manufacturing industry, it is extremely important to choose the right welding technology. There is no doubt that tungsten gas shielded arc welding (GTAW), high-frequency (HF) welding, and laser welding have been applied in the manufacture of titanium alloy tubes.