idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Light, resource-efficient and at the same time robust - what is good for lightweight construction in the automobile industry is just as important for ship construction. Therefore, steel-aluminum joints are also used for ships. However, ships need completely different material thicknesses. The ten partners of the project LaSAAS, under the leadership of the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), are dedicated to developing a robust laser welding process for the maritime manufacturing.
In times of scarce resources it is also important in the ship industry to lower fuel consumption and carbon dioxide output, in order to reduce the environmental impact. Already, components are being made using weight-reducing steel-aluminum constructions, such as ship hulls made of steel and superstructures made of aluminum. In addition, such hybrid material constructions lower the center of gravity of the ship and thus stabilize it. At the moment, the different metals are joined using an adapter piece. This is done using explosive cladding, a complicated and cost intensive joining technology.
Joining steel directly to aluminum
The scientists and industrial partners of the joint project LaSAAS want to replace this adapter piece. For this purpose, the system manufacturers Precitec GmbH & Co. KG, Scansonic MI GmbH and TRUMPF Laser- und Systemtechnik GmbH are working together with the LZH to develop a laser processing head with a weld penetration depth control.
Using this, the LZH will develop a laser welding process under lab conditions that will later be tested in cooperation with the LASER on demand GmbH. Afterwards, the process will be transferred to actual applications with the semi-finished product manufacturers Druckguss Service Deutschland GmbH and Hilbig GmbH as well as the shipyards Fr. Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG and MEYER WERFT GmbH & Co. In addition, the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability (LBF) will examine the fatigue behavior of the seams, especially under the influence of corrosive media.
Controlling the weld penetration depth
Generally, when thermally welding steel to aluminum, brittle intermetallic phases occur, so that the seams can prematurely fail under stress. However, the weld seam characteristics can be optimized based on the mix ratio of the metals, respectively the weld penetration depth. Thus, the project partners plan on controlling the weld penetration depth by analyzing the spectral process emissions and short coherence interferometry.
If successful, the process can naturally become interesting for other branches which assemble large pieces, such as train coach or commercial vehicle construction, too.
The joint project “Laser Welding of Steel to Aluminum for Applications in Shipbuilding” (LaSAAS) is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy (BMWi), and supervised by the Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (PTJ).
Laser welding of steel to aluminum.
Photo: LZH
None
Criteria of this press release:
Business and commerce, Journalists
Materials sciences, Mechanical engineering
transregional, national
Research projects
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
