Microlaser welding optimization of stainless steel ANSI 304 using box-behnken design of experiments

Advisors: Meung Kim.Committee members: Jenn-Terng Gau; Pradip Majumdar.Industries are looking at ways to improve manufacturing efficiency and product quality as critical metrics to stay competitive. Laser welding is an emerging technology that is helping industries (e.g., microelectronics, packaging, and most recently in the automotive industry) improve the overall quality of their end products. To be able to use laser welding more effectively, the different parameters need to be understood and optimized. In this research, a pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a maximum power of 50 watts was used to produce spot weld on Stainless Steel 304. The principal objective of this research was to understand the optimal parameters for penetration depth and spot width. A Box-Behnken Design of Experiment (DOE) was used, and process parameters were varied, such as pulse duration, speed and frequency. The effect of each process parameter was observed with respect to total spot penetration depth and spot diameter. The results were analyzed graphically and analytically using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine the optimum values of the process parameters and their individual effectiveness toward the penetration depth and spot diameter.M.S. (Master of Science