Electron Beam Welding of Aluminum Alloys

Abstract

Aluminum alloys are the subject of increasing interest in the automotive industry, as well as the aircraft industry, aiming to reduce the weight of components and also allowing a profit in term of energy saving. In assembly process, riveting has been widely used in the aircraft industry, whereas welding seems to be available in the car industry in the case of aluminum alloys. Nevertheless, conventional fusion welding can generate defects, such as gas porosity, oxide inclusions, solidification cracking (hot tearing), reduced strength in both the weld, and heat-affected zone (HAZ), which could limit its development. Electron beam welding (EBW) has unique advantages over other traditional fusion welding methods due to high energy density, deep penetration, large depth-to-width ratio, and small HAZ. EBW has been developed for many years and is being increasingly implemented in various industrial applications. In many cases, it has proven to be an efficient method for joining difficult to weld materials. One of the major problems associated with the EBW is how to select a proper combination of the process parameters because improper selection of these parameters causes defects in the weld joint, which could seriously influence the weld mechanical properties. This work introduces an overview of the EBW process, its parameters, process simulation, process optimization, and finally characterization of the electron beam weld joint of 2219 aluminum alloy.