Inductive preheating in laser beam welding of multimaterial joints of 22MnB5 and AA6016

Abstract

Inductive preheating is well known as possibility to heat ferromagnetic materials. In brazing preheating causes an improvement of wetting quality, e.g. smaller wetting angles and longer wetting lengths. In this paper inductive preheating is used to support a laser beam hybrid joining process. Aluminum AA6016 is molten in order to wet the surface of AlSi-coated steel 22MnB5. Investigations on the influence of preheating on wetting characteristics and intermetallic phase seam formation were carried out. Strength values up to 230 MPa have been measured in tensile shear tests. Fraction zone occurs in the aluminum base material indicating uncritical thickness of the intermetallic phase seam at the interface. © 2013 The Authors.