In laser Transmission Welding (LTW), the laser beam passes through the transparent part and is dissipated as heat in the absorbent material through the use of laser-absorbing pigments such as carbon black (CB). This energy is then conducted further into both parts. Melting and subsequent solidification occur at the interface causing a weld to form between the two parts. Gluing or welding structures to the back of automotive Class-A panels often results in the appearance of undesirable surface deformations on the Class-A side. Through control of the laser welding and material parameters, it may be possible to use contour LTW as a means of joining structures to the back of absorbent Class-A panels without creating these unwanted surface defects. A series of lap welds was made using a range of CB levels, laser powers and polypropylene part thicknesses. A profilometer was used to measure the size and shape of the defects generated on the surface of the black part. Two types of defects were observed: ribs and sink marks. It was observed that lower powers combined with higher carbon black levels generally resulted in smaller defects. The type of defect depended on the boundary conditions between the two parts and the flow of polymer that had thermally expanded during welding (flash). If weld flash flowed into gaps between the two plates, rib defects were always observed. If flash flowed elsewhere and no gaps existed between the plates, sink marks occurred. Finite element modeling was used to qualitatively validate these observations. / Thesis (Master, Chemical Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-07-02 14:34:41.201

This thesis presents a comprehensive study on the thermal modelling aspects of laser transmission welding of thermoplastics (LTW), a technology for joining of plastic parts. In the LTW technique, a laser beam passes through the laser-transmitting part and is absorbed within a thin layer in the laser-absorbing part. The heat generated at the interface of the two parts melts a thin layer of the plastic and, with applying appropriate clamping pressure, joining occurs. Transient thermal models for the LTW process were developed and solved by the finite element method (FEM). Input to the models included temperature-dependent thermo-physical properties that were adopted from well-known sources, material suppliers, or obtained by conducting experiments. In addition, experimental and theoretical studies were conducted to estimate the optical properties of the materials such as the absorption coefficient of the laser-absorbing part and light scattering by the laser-transmitting part. Lap-joint geometry was modelled for semi crystalline (polyamide - PA6) and amorphous (polycarbonate - PC) materials. The thermal models addressed the heating and cooling stages in a laser welding process with a stationary and moving laser beam. An automated ANSYS® script and MATLAB® codes made it possible to input a three-dimensional (3D), time-varying volumetric heat-generation term to model the absorption of a moving diode-laser beam. The result was a 3D time-transient, model of the laser transmission welding process implemented in the ANSYS® FEM environment. In the thermal imaging experiments, a stationary or moving laser beam was located in the proximity of the side surface of the two parts being joined in a lap-joint configuration. The side surface was then observed by the thermal imaging camera. For the case of the stationary beam, the laser was activated for 10 s while operating at a low power setting. For the case of the moving beam, the beam was translated parallel to the surface observed by the camera. The temperature distribution of a lap joint geometry exposed to a stationary and moving diode-laser beam, obtained from 3D thermal modelling was then compared with the thermal imaging observations. The predicted temperature distribution on the surface of the laser-absorbing part observed by the thermal camera agreed within 3C with that of the experimental results. Predicted temperatures on the laser-transmitting part surface were generally higher by 15C to 20C. This was attributed to absorption coefficient being set too high in the model for this part. Thermal imaging of the soot-coated laser-transmitting part surface indicated that significantly more scattering and less absorption takes place in this part than originally assumed. For the moving laser beam, good model match with the experiments (peak temperatures predicted within 1C) was obtained for some of the process conditions modelled for PA6 parts. In addition, a novel methodology was developed to extract the scattered laser beam power distribution from the thermal imaging observations of the moving laser beam. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-10-08 10:39:30.952

Nowadays, components made of metallic materials are increasingly being replaced by components made of plastics or composites with a polymer matrix. This is associated with the issue of production processes such as pressing or welding, i.e. the influence of process parameters on the output properties of the product. The presented thesis deals with the issue of the combination of pressing and welding of a composite part, specifically the influence of the pressing overlap on the strength and tightness of the welded joint. The first part is focused on a search of available literature related to the problem. The second part deals with solving the problem using experimental modeling. Part of this chapter is inclusion of computational modeling in the design of experiment, detailed measurement of essential dimensions, microtome analysis and statistical processing and evaluation. The third part focuses on the creation of a method for evaluating the strength of the weld based on the pressing overlap using computational modeling. Essential part is also validation of the computational model based on previous experimental measurements. Finally, two methods for evaluation of the weld strength are presented. The first works on the basis of computational modeling and the second on the basis of experimental modeling. At the same time, the presumptions of usage of the created methods and their drawbacks are pointed out. Furthermore, the possibilities of their implementation in the initial design of the welded joint and the proposal for the next procedure are described.