Study of the effect of inter-pass temperature on weld overlap start-stop defects and mitigation by application of laser defocusing

Laser keyhole initiation and termination-related defects, such as cracking and keyhole cavities due to keyhole collapse, are a well-known issue in laser keyhole welding of thick section steels. In longitudinal welding, run-on and run-off plates are used to avoid this problem. However, such an approach is not applicable in circumferential welding where start/stop defects remain within the workpiece. These issues can hinder industry from applying laser keyhole welding for circumferential welding applications. In this paper, the effect of inter-pass temperature on laser keyhole initiation and termination at the weld overlap start-stop region was investigated. This study has identified that defects occurring within this region were due to laser termination rather than laser initiation because of keyhole instabilities regardless of the thermal cycle. The laser termination defects were mitigated by applying a laser defocusing termination regime to reduce the keyhole depth gradually and control the closure of the keyhole.