Plasma Bursts in Deep Penetration Laser Welding

Abstract

We present an experimental study of the deep penetration laser welding process which aims to analyze the plasma plume oscillations on a short time scale. Using the high-speed camera we show that the plasma comes out of the keyhole in the form of short bursts rather than the continuous flow. We detect these bursts as the short-time intensity oscillations of light emissions coming from the plasma plume. We determine the period of bursts using the statistical signal processing methods and the short-time frequency analysis. Finally, we compare the characteristics of plasma bursts and the geometry of resulting welds carried out on a 2 kW Yb:YAG laser welding machine for the steel workpiece and various welding parameters settings.