ROBUHYB – Robust laser arc hybrid welding of thick section automotive components

Project time: 2011 – 2014

Budget: 2 800 000 SEK

Funding: FFI – Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation

Laser Arc Hybrid Welding (LAHW), a combination of laser and arc welding, offers
higher productivity compared to traditional welding techniques like arc welding. This is
achieved by higher welding speeds and more advanced construction possibilities. Thus
far, laser arc hybrid welding is not used in the Swedish engineering industry but there are
already more than hundred installations worldwide. Scania has the ambition to implement
laser hybrid arc welding, but development of a robust process and increased
understanding of the weld during fatigue situations, especially concerning the weld upper
geometry, are required.
The robustness of the process was studied with a new fully controlled and systematic
traceability of tolerance. This is achieved by mapping parameters, measuring and
studying edge variations from the forming, and creating an understanding of its impact
upon the final weld by High Speed Imaging (HSI). Also the new arc welding process
CMT (Cold Metal Transfer) was studied in combination with laser beam welding. During
the project, sample workpieces and full-scale automotive components where welded with
LAHW with respect to process robustness, coupled quality control and fatigue behavior.
Basic differences between three arc welding processes (Cold Metal Transfer – CMT,
Pulsed, Standard) are investigated for each process function and process stability.
Tolerance windows for the weld joint types that occur on the demonstrator are
investigated and mapped for LAHW with CMT, as a technique for thick sheet metal
products. The new systematic measurement method (pre-, post-scanning and HSI) has
been further developed and applied on a complex automotive product. For a truck beamer
all the twelve weld sections has been mapped and optimized. From the results, six journal
and four conference papers has been produced and presented.
A new project (EU-FP7, HYBRO) continues where ROBUHYB ends. The HYBRO
project continues with the same demonstrator and therefore works as an extension of
ROBUHYB. It was prioritized to put more time to compare different techniques to get
even better results. Within HYBRO there also are a 6 m long demonstrator from a French
automotive company and two other Scania applications that are going to be investigated.
Besides that, HYBRO is a good opportunity to collaborate with world leading partners
that applies the new LAHW technique for high strength steels. Eight beamers have
already been 3D-robot welded at LTU in a fixture made by Ferruform (Scania).
Optimization of the demonstrator beamer welding continued when eight additional
beamers where first tack-welded at LTU and later welded at Fronius (Austria, leading
supplier of laser welding equipment) where additional errors were detected and therefore
avoidable.
The whole chain from construction (production development in Södertälje) and
material choice, cutting/forming, welding, finishing etc. (Ferruform in Luleå) was
analyzed from an economic and practical point of view, in order to prepare introduction
of LAHW in production.

Participating researcher(s)

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