Laser Welding of metal/engineering ceramics

摘要

Tungsten carbide is normally used for the making of trimming and punching dies for the IC leadframe industry. Currently each entire carbide tool is machined from one piece of tungsten carbide. This is a costly process, both in terms of material and machining costs. This project has examined the feasibility of joining 2mm thick tungsten carbide with 2 mm thick mild steel using a 2 kW Carbon Dioxide laser. Without the process of preheating the carbide specimen, a parameter window has been identified in which crack free full penetration welds can be obtained for the two dissimilar materials. The microstructure, composition analysis and hardness of the weld beads were examined.