Effect of Laser Beam Irradiation on CO_2 Gas Arc Welding

摘要

The laser beam is one of the best tools for heat processing, however, it is expensive and its output power is still low compared with conventional heat sources such as an arc. In contrast, arc welding is a very convenient and cheap heat source, but its ability for deep penetration or high speed welding is poor compared with the laser beam. Recently, some research works to combine conventional arc welding and laser welding have been performed. However, there are still many difficulties remaining before these heat sources can be combined effectively. This report describes a fundamental research of the effect of laser beam irradiation on conventional CO_2 gas arc welding to develop a high speed welding method for thick plates using a combination of these two heat sources.