Laser welding of copper using a high power disc laser at green wavelength

Abstract

The trend towards renewable energies and electromobility is increasing the demand for copper. Laser welding as a flexible and fully automatable process is being more frequently employed to join copper materials. The use of green laser radiation compared to infrared laser radiation has the advantage of a significantly higher absorption coefficient for copper materials. Therefore, high power laser sources emitting at a green wavelength promise a more stable and a more efficient process. In this paper, experimental investigations with a green continuous wave laser radiation at a maximum power of 1 kW are presented. Using design of experiments, the process limits are determined depending on the laser power and the welding velocity. Furthermore, the potential of heat conduction welding using this laser source is investigated.