A Study of Laser Aided Activating TIG Welding

Laser aided activating TIG welding was called LA-TIG. At first, the surface of weld was melted by the mini power laser protected by oxygen, and then the conventional TIG was used to cover the weld, which achieved the target of the weld with deeper penetration and narrower width. In this article, the weld bead morphology, arc images, microstructures and mechanical properties of laser aided activating TIG welding joint were analyzed. The results shows that the penetration increased significantly, excellent weld appearance and finger shape penetration were gained by laser aided activating TIG welding. It was found that the arc images of the LA-TIG was only the enlarged form compared with which observed in the conventional TIG and the arc constriction was also observed. LA-TIG weld exhibits better mechanical properties than the conventional TIG welding. Thus laser aided activating TIG welding was developed as a novel active welding method.