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Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000
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Procedia CIRP 00 (2017)

Procedia 000–000
CIRP 74 (2018) 442–445
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

10th CIRP
10th CIRPConference
Conference on
on Photonic
Photonic Technologies
Technologies [LANE
[LANE 2018]
2018]

Analysis of the effect of the

28th CIRP thermomechanical
Design Conference, May 2018,processing
Nantes, France on the laser weld
joint of aluminum alloys of Al-Mg-Li and Al-Cu-Li
A new methodology to analyze the functional and physical architecture of
existing products forOrishich
an assembly oriented product
, Evgenijfamily
Karpova,bidentification
a, a
Anatoly *, Aleksandr Malikov
a
Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics SB RAS, Institutskaja 4/1 Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Paul Stief *, Jean-Yves Dantan, Alain Etienne, Ali Siadat
b
Lavrent’ev Institute of Hydrodynamics SB RAS, 15 Lavrent'ev Str, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +7-383-330-7342; E-mail address: laser@itam.nsc.ru

École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, LCFC EA 4495, 4 Rue Augustin Fresnel, Metz 57078, France

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 87 37 54 30; E-mail address: paul.stief@ensam.eu

Abstract

The paper presents the experimental investigation of the laser welding of high-strength aluminum-lithium alloys of Al-Cu-Li and Al-Mg-Li
Abstract
system followed by the thermal processing, aimed to the production of a high-strength weld joint. It is founded that the thermal processing
(quenching, artificial ageing) of the welded joint increases its strength, however the variation of the microstructure and phase composition is
Indifferent
today’s for
business
the twoenvironment,
systems of thethealloys.
trend towards moreprocessing
The thermal product variety andgetting
permits customization
the tensileis strength
unbroken.
of Due to this sample
the welded development, thethe
of 0.9 of need of
basic
agile
alloyand reconfigurable
strength for Al-Cu-Liproduction
and 0.95systems emerged to cope with various products and product families. To design and optimize production
for Al-Mg-Li.
systems
© 2018 asThewell as to choose
Authors. theby
Published optimal product
Elsevier matches,
Ltd. This product
is an open analysis
access articlemethods
under theareCC
needed.
BY-NC-NDIndeed, most of the known methods aim to
license
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
analyze a product or one product family on the
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) physical level. Different product families, however, may differ largely in terms of the number and
nature of components.
Peer-review under This fact
responsibility impedes
of the an efficient
Bayerisches comparison
Laserzentrum
Peer-review under responsibility of the Bayerisches Laserzentrum GmbH. and
GmbH. choice of appropriate product family combinations for the production
system. A new methodology is proposed to analyze existing products in view of their functional and physical architecture. The aim is to cluster
these products
Keywords: laserinwelding;
new assembly oriented
CO2 laser; thermalproduct families
processing; phase for the optimization
composition; of existing assembly lines and the creation of future reconfigurable
microstructure.
assembly systems. Based on Datum Flow Chain, the physical structure of the products is analyzed. Functional subassemblies are identified, and
a functional analysis is performed. Moreover, a hybrid functional and physical architecture graph (HyFPAG) is the output which depicts the
similarity between product families by providing design support to both, production system planners and product designers. An illustrative
1. Introduction
example of a nail-clipper is used to explain the proposed methodology. An industrial Weldedcase joints
studyofonthese alloysfamilies
two product obtained by lasercolumns
of steering welding
of
thyssenkrupp Presta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation and containing lithium
of the proposed have poor mechanical characteristics.
approach.
© 2017As The Authors.
of now, newPublished by Elsevier
high-strength B.V.
heat-hardenable wrought The tensile strength of a welded joint is 0.6-0.85 of the base
Peer-review
alloys haveunder beenresponsibility
developed,offor theexample:
scientific committee
Al- Mg- of the 28th
Li-X (X CIRP Designstrength
material Conference 2018. The main cause of the welded joint
[13-14].
=Mg, Zn, Mn, Zr, Sc), Al- Cu - Mg- Li, Al-Cu-Li-X (X =Mg, strength decrease is assumed to be the evaporation of volatile
Keywords: Assembly; Design method; Family identification
Zn, Mn, Zr, Sc) [1-4]. The alloys of Al-Cu-Li-X system have alloying elements, such as: Mg, Li, Zn, Mn, porosity and
high mechanical characteristics; the alloys of Al-Mg-Li-X autocracks in the weld. To minimize this negative effect,
system are medium-strength and corrosion resistant [1-3]. according to various sources, either the optimization of
A detailed examination of the properties of these alloys is
1. Introduction welding modesrange
of the product or addition should be usedmanufactured
and characteristics [13-14]. and/or
now performed, methods to change strength properties, assembled in this system. In this context, thealloys
The strength of welded joints of Al-Li obtained by
main challenge in
structural-phase
Due to the state fast using various inheating
development (quenching,
the domain of laser beamand
modelling welding is still
analysis is rather
now not lowonly
for mass implementation
to cope with single
artificial ageing, annealing) and deformation
communication and an ongoing trend of digitization processing
and of this technology
products, a limited in the aerospace
product range orengineering [1,3]. families,
existing product
(plastic deformation)
digitalization, methodsenterprises
manufacturing are in development
are facing[1,important
4-12]. but also to be able to analyze and to compare products to that
At the same time, it can be considered established, in
define
In order to substitute the riveted joints technology
challenges in today’s market environments: a continuing and, order to increase the strength of the welded joint
new product families. It can be observed that classical existing of heat-
subsequently, lower the overall construction weight,
tendency towards reduction of product development times and Al-Li strengthened
product familiesAl-Li alloys, additional
are regrouped in functionmechanical
of clients orand heat
features.
alloys welding
shortened producttechnologies
lifecycles. In are beingthere
addition, rapidly
is an developed:
increasing treatment of the joint [1, 13-14].
However, assembly oriented product families are hardly to find.
friction stir welding, laser beam welding.
demand of customization, being at the same time in a global In this
On the article
productthefamily
authors performed
level, productsa comparative
differ mainlyresearch
in two
One of the
competition most
with promising all
competitors welding methods
over the world.is This
laser trend,
beam of mechanical characteristics (strength, microhardness)
main characteristics: (i) the number of components and (ii) of the
the
welding that has following advantages: fusion
which is inducing the development from macro to micro penetration laser welded joints of alloys 1424 (Al-Mg-Li) and
type of components (e.g. mechanical, electrical, electronical). V1469 (Al-
mode, high
markets, accuracy,
results high welding
in diminished lot speed, low to
sizes due heataugmenting
loss, good Cu-Li); theymethodologies
Classical alloys were developed
consideringinmainly
FSUEsingle
VIAM Russia
products
flexibility and automation perspectives.
product varieties (high-volume to low-volume production) [1]. and protected by Russian patents [6-8, 10-12].
or solitary, already existing product families analyze the For increase
To cope with this augmenting variety as well as to be able to product structure on a physical level (components level) which
identify © 2018 Theoptimization
2212-8271 possible Authors. Published by Elsevier
potentials in Ltd.
the This is an opencauses
existing access article under theregarding
difficulties CC BY-NC-ND license
an efficient definition and
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)
production system, it is important to have a precise knowledge comparison of different product families. Addressing this
Peer-review under responsibility of the Bayerisches Laserzentrum GmbH.
2212-8271 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
2212-8271 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of scientific
of the the Bayerisches Laserzentrum
committee GmbH.
of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
10.1016/j.procir.2018.08.162
 Anatoly Orishich et al. / Procedia CIRP 74 (2018) 442–445 443
2 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000

the mechanical properties of the welds, was applied post- the weld joint. The width and penetration of the laser weld
treatment (quenching, intermediate plastic deformation, and beads became narrower and shallower with an increase in the
artificial ageing). Also, in this article for the first time a welding speed. At the lower speeds of 2 m/min, is a formed
comparative research of heat treatment and alloying elements droplet and spatter on the surface.
influence on the Al-Li alloys welded joints of alloys 1424 and The beam diameter on the lens was equal to 25 mm. The
V1469 was held with the use of electron microscopy. It is diameter of the focused beam in its waist was evaluated as a
shown that different alloying elements can sufficiently change sum of the diffraction diameter and diameter of the dissipation
the weld microstructure. spot resulting from the spherical aberration. The calculated
total diameter is 250 μm for the CO2 laser.
2. Materials and Methods After the welding they underwent post-treatment. Heat
treatment modes for the alloy 1469 of Al-Cu-Li system [11]
Laser beam welding aluminum alloys sheet 1.6 mm thick are as follows: the samples were quenched in water after
was performed on the Sibir-1 automated laser technological curing at a temperature of 530 °С for 30 min. The rate of
complex, which includes a continuous-wave СО2 laser with a heating up to 530 °С was 5 °С/min; intermediate plastic
power up to 8 kW developed at the Khristianovich Institute of deformation with the weld thickness deformation ratio of
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of 10%. The plastic deformation of the joint was carried out at a
the Russian Academy of Sciences. The laser beam was load of 20 kN. Intermediate plastic deformation improves the
focused on the alloy surface with the help of a ZnSe lens with strength characteristics of both alloys [1] and welded joint
a focal length of 254 mm. An inert gas (helium) was used for [15]; the samples were subjected to artificial ageing at 160 °С
the welded joint protection [15]. Welding was carried out in for 24 h. The rate of heating up to 160 °С was 5 °С/min.
the protective atmosphere of helium, fed through the nozzle, For the alloys 1424 (system Al-Mg-Li) the following heat
the gas flow was 5 cl/s. Chemical compound of the alloys treatment modes were chosen [8]: heating up to 450°С with
1424 of system Al-Mg-Li [6] and V1469 of system Al-Cu-Li curing for 30 minutes and air cooling, the rate of heating up to
[10] that were used is shown in Table 1. The sheets made of 450 °С was 5 °С/min; plastic deformation with the thickness
the aluminum-based alloy 1.6 thick. deformation ratio of 10%; the samples were subjected to
artificial ageing at 120 °С for 12h. The rate of heating up to
Table 1. Chemical compound of Al alloys (wt. %). 120 °С was 5 °С/min.
Alloys Li Cu Mg Zr Sc Ag Zn Al
1424 1.5- 4.1- 0.03- 0.01- 0.1- base 3. Results
1.9 4.6 0.05 0.3 1.5
V1469 1.0- 3.2- 0.01- 0.02- 0.02- 0.15- base Table 2 contain the data about the ultimate tensile strength
1.7 4.5 0.05 0.25 0.25 1.5 σUTS, and relative elongation δ of the base alloy, welded joint
The oxide film was removed by means of chemical milling and heat-treated weld and alloy for the two systems. Also, in
to a depth of 0.15÷0.20 mm. Directly before welding, the the tables there are indexes ki that reflect the changes of the
sample edges were scraped bright with a metallic scraper. The given values in relation to the base alloy depending on various
macrostructure and microstructure of the welded joints were modes. For each mode at least 3 samples were examined.
studied by an Olympus LEXT OLS3000 optical microscope. Table 2. Mechanical properties of the welded joint after different treatment.
The spectral analysis of the welded joint and base alloy was
alloy 1424 alloy V1469.
performed on a LEO 1430 VPI scanning electron microscope
(SEM) equipped with an IPX OXFORD energy detector. Heat Mode
σUTS, σUTS,
treatment was performed in a Carbolite batch furnace k1 δ, % k1 δ, %
MPa MPa
equipped with a temperature controller. The samples were cut
on automatic and polishing machines for sample preparation Base alloy 463 1,00 8,6 557 1 10,2
(Presi). Microhardness was measured by a Micromet 5114
Alloy after
instrument by means of indentation of a regular quadrahedral quenching
371 0,80 20,3 385 0,69 17,8
diamond pyramid loaded at 100 g to the flat surface of the
sample. The strength of the welded joints and base alloys Alloy after
under static tension was measured on a Zwick/Roell Z100 quenching, artificial 442 0,95 15,1 443 0,8 13,8
aging
electromechanical test machine. The structural-phase states
were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were Welded joint 376 0,81 2,4 306 0,55 3,1
recorded using a D8 ADVANCE diffractometer (Bruker
AXS, Germany) with Cu Kα radiation. Welded joint after
380 0,82 19,2 384 0,69 17,8
quenching.
Welded joints samples without any surface defects such as
hotcracks, lack of fusion were obtained by the following Welded joint after
welding mode: laser beam power 3 kW, welding speed 4 quenching, plastic
438 0,95 13,3 440 0,79 11,7
m/min, and focal point position in the material -3 mm. deformation and
Reducing the laser beam power leads to no penetration. artificial aging
The change in the focus position leads to a change in the deep
penetration mode and, thereby, to a decrease in the width of
444 Anatoly Orishich et al. / Procedia CIRP 74 (2018) 442–445
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000 3

On Fig.1 microhardness distribution for the alloys, HAZ,

and weld joint with and without heat treatment is shown,
direction – across the weld. The average value of welded
joint microhardness in relation to the base alloy
microhardness HV0.1 130±5 (1424), HV0.1 165±5 (V1469) is
≈ 0.78 and 0.58 for Al-Mg-Li and Al-Cu-Li. Weld
microhardness rapidly increases after the quenching and
becomes uniform after the artificial ageing. Quenching and
artificial ageing quenching consequently increase the average
value of the microhardness, rising it up to the level ≈0.92 and
0. 82 % of the base alloy (not heat)

(1) (2)

Fig. 2. SEM image of the cross-section weld microstructure of alloy Al-Mg-

Li (1) and weld microstructure alloy Al-Cu-Li (2) (magnification 7000x) a-
a) without treatment, b - after quenching, 3 - quenching + plastic deformation +
artificial ageing.

The basic feature of Al-Cu-Li system is that such large

aggregates can be enriched with Cu (up to 56%), but they also
contain Sc (up to 2%) and Zr (up to 1.3%) and constitute, as it
seems, a multi-component W-phase [9]. In Al-Cu-Li system
the solid solution was impoverished with Cu, and the
intermetallic phases were concentrated along the boundary of
the dendritic grain.
b) On Fig.3 the preliminary results of phase composition
comparative the X-ray diffraction patterns for the alloy and
Fig. 1. Microhardness distribution depending on the type of weld and base weld are presented: a - alloy 1424; b - V1469.
alloy heat treatment а) System Al-Mg-Li (alloy 1424) b) system Al-Cu-Li
(alloy V-1469) 1 without treatment, 2 quenching, 3 artificial ageing
quenching a
On Fig.2 typical photos of the alloys 1424 (Al-Mg-Li) (1)
and V-1469 (Al-Cu-Li) (2) welds microstructure samples in
original state and after quenching, quenching + plastic
deformation + artificial ageing obtained at 7000x
magnification are represented.
The microstructure image obtained with the help of
electron microscope (Fig.2) in most part is proved by the
image done with the obtained of optical microscope.
However, the electron microscope, in contrast to the optical b
microscope, allowed us to define not only the agglomerates
represented on Fig.2, but also rarely located light
agglomerates of a substantially larger size 3-10 µm, which
were present in both base alloy and the welds of all examined
alloys. The chemical compound changes in these
agglomerates showed that they contain a significant amount
of rare-earth elements, Zirconium and Scandium in particular,
with a wide range of concentration 7-37% (% by weight) and
small amount of Mg (0.7-3.8%). One can suppose that in
Fig. 3. X-ray diffraction patterns of the base alloy and weld.
these agglomerates the phase Al3 (Sc, Zr) might have formed.
a) alloy 1424 (Al-Mg-Li system); b) alloy 1469 (Al-Cu-Li system).
 Anatoly Orishich et al. / Procedia CIRP 74 (2018) 442–445
4 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000
The phase analysis was performed on the basis of works
[16-17, 19] for alloy Al-Mg-Li and works [18-19] for alloy
Al-Cu-Li. As one can see on Fig.3 the phase composition of
the weld changes. Strengthening phases δʹ(Al3Li) for Al-Mg-
Li system disappear, the reflections of phase S1(Al2MgLi)
appear. The reflection of strengthening phase T1(Al2CuLi) for
alloy Al-Cu-Li displaces. On the angle 2Θ, approximately
equal to 40 degrees, one can see an intense reflection, watch
we failed to identify. The reflection of phase θ`(Al2Cu) is
slightly displaced in relation to the base alloy.
4. Conclusion.
Thus, the proposed approach which includes laser welding
in optimal mode and heat treatment allowed us to obtain fixed
joints with strength close to the strength of the alloy, and
sometimes even exceeding it. The systems examined: Al-Mg-
Li-X (X = Zn, Mn, Zr, Sc) of the alloys 1424, Al-Cu-Mg-Li
and systems Al-Cu-Li-X (X =Mg, Zn, Mn, Zr, Sc) of the alloy
V-1469; both common regularities and fundamental
differences of the technology processes for the given alloys
have been defined.
We should point out that the base of all alloys in at-
delivery state is α-solid solution with the inclusion of alloying
elements in Al. Main strengthening phases are: δ'(Al3Li)
phase for Al-Mg-Li system alloy; θ`(Al2Cu) and Т1(Al2CuLi)
for Al-Cu-Li system alloy, size of which is 5-30 nm and
which are uniformly distributed in the alloy. Besides, in the
weld triple intermetallic phases of S1(Al2MgLi) type are
formed, or W phases, which can be seen in the base alloy
microstructure as rare dark particles (agglomerates) of the size
of micron.
The weld microstructure differs fundamentally (see Fig.2).
A solid solution after the remelting is in two-phase area. A
significant number of the intermetallic phases' agglomerates
of the typical size of 1-2 µm phase S1(Al2MgLi) for alloy Al-
Mg-Li and of 0.3-1µm phases θ`(Al2Cu) and Т1(Al2CuLi) for
alloy Al-Cu-Li are formed the boundary and in the volume of
dendritic grains of the weld melt (see Fig. 2). As a result, the
dendritic structure is really contrasting. The quenching
changed the weld microstructure. As the quenching
temperature raised, the number of agglomerates both in the
alloy and in the weld became smaller, and upon ome critical
value exceeding (different for various alloys) the
microstructure of the whole sample was becoming closer to
the base alloy microstructure, i.e. with rare inclusions of
intermetallic phase agglomerates.
In the process of ageing the strengthening phases are
formed in the weld, and it is possible to restore the
mechanical properties close to the base alloy. As a result, the
mechanical properties of samples can be managed by heat
treatment modes, in particular, one can create a sample with a
strength higher than the strength of at-delivery material. The
fundamental difference of examined alloys depends on the
behavior of base alloying elements. Mg poorly diffuses in the
melt and solid solution of alloy 1424, it only changes its phase
state. In contrast to Mg, in the weld melt of alloy V-1469 Cu
445
is released in a form of rather large (up to 10 µm)
agglomerates, and the solid solution impoverishes, which
apparently provides larger decrease in weld strength and
microhardness. The difficulties in mechanical properties
restoring of alloy V-1469 weld samples at heat treatment are
apparently provided by the same reason; their optimization
requires further examination.
Acknowledgements
The work is supported by the grant of the Russian
Scientific Foundation No. 17-79-20139.
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