Evaluation of material properties after laser welding on ductile cast iron

Abstract: Scania wants to lower the weight of their trucks, including the goal to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions, and one way to do that is to use laser welding instead of fastenings.This bachelor thesis work is about laser welding of ductile cast iron, or spheroidal graphite cast iron or nodular cast iron, to QT-steels and case hardening steel and evaluation of the mechanical properties of the weld. Also laser welding of cast steel to the same two materials are being evaluated in this work. Tests are done to evaluate the effect on the material from laser welding. The tests are tensile tests and Vickers hardness test; both across and along the weld and in some areas of interest. EDS (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy) is used to analyze the composition in the weld and light optical microscope is used to look at the fusion zone (FZ) and the heat affected zone (HAZ). The results shows that the hardness is high in the heat affected zone due to the formation of martensite and that the materials mix more towards the root of the weld. The materials also mix more if the weld depth is deeper. The width of the heat affected zone seems to be longer if the heat input is higher. It is also clear that welding of cast steel is less complicated than the welding of ductile cast iron. That is because ductile cast iron gets a hard and brittle heat affected zone (HAZ) while the cast steel does not. The cast steel can also be welded without filler wire without getting to hard or to brittle. If laser welding is to be used in the future the component should be constructed in such a way that the fusion zone is not carrying the main load. Tests on fatigue strength should also first be done on a finished component as it cannot be tested on the samples in this work. This work was conducted at Scania AB and the royal institute of technology, KTH, in Sweden.