The use of exploratory experimental designs combined with thermal numerical modelling to obtain a predictive tool for hybrid laser/MIG welding and coating processes

While hybrid laser welding and coating processes involve a large number of physical phenomena it is currently impossible to predict for a given set of influencing factors the shape of the molten zone and the history of temperature fields inside the parts This remains true for complex processes such as the hybrid laser/MIG welding process which consists in combining a laser beam with a MIG torch The gains obtained result essentially from the synergy of the associated processes the stability of the process the quality of the seam realized and the productivity are increased This article shows how by means of a reduced number of experiments (8) it is possible to predict the shape of the molten zone and the temperature field inside parts for a given window of influencing factors This method consists in combining the method of exploratory experimental designs with a numerical modelling of the thermal phenomena that occurs during the process by using the heat equivalent source approach [1-4] Two validations of this method have been carried out the first for a set of parameters inside the experimental design and the other for a set of parameters that lies outside the experimental design but inside the domain investigated (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved