Laser spot welding of thermoplastic and ceramic: Anudexperimental investigation

摘要

Laser welding of dissimilar materials classes has vast potential in a variety of applications due to the non-contact nature of the process. This study investigates the effects of CO2 laser process parameters on the characteristics of spot welded joint between ceramic and thermoplastic. Using a full-factorial design an experimental investigation is carried out studying the effect of welding parameters (laser exposure, number of spots, stand-off distance) on the tensile strength and the diameter of spot weld. The study reveals an increase of joint tensile strength with the increase in the number of spots and the duration of exposure. However at low laser power, the effect of stand-off distance on the spot weld diameter is found to be inconclusive. Optimal process parameters are estimated using the multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA). The analysis shows that the higher number of spots and the longest duration of laser exposure result in optimal weld characteristics. Alongside these conditions, a larger stand-off distance is seen to have beneficial impact on the weld characteristics.