Laser welding of AlSi10Mg aluminium-based alloy produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

Abstract Additive manufacturing can produce very complex and highly integrated parts that cannot be manufactured by traditional methods. In many of its applications, the AM-manufactured part may be a very small part of the whole, and therefore it has become increasingly important to find suitable attachment methods for printed parts. The aim of this study was to find out the laser weldability of the printed AlSi10Mg material without filler material. The laser used in these welding experiments was Yb:YAG disk laser. The laser wavelength was 1030 nm and the maximum output power on the workpiece surface was 4 kW. AlSi10Mg is a widely used material in parts that are produced utilizing the SLM technique. The material has very good corrosion resistance properties, good electrical conductivity and excellent thermal conductivity. AlSi10Mg has proven to be much easier to print than steel materials, so it is a popular material also in prototype production. Based on welding tests, laser welding without filler material is suitable for AlSi10Mg material and the static strength of the weld is reasonably good compared to the base material. However, AlSi10Mg can be found to be challenging due to its composition.