The effects of laser line energy on welding strength of PASF/PC using magnesium zinc alloy powders as absorbents in laser transmission welding

Abstract

The metal powder absorbents have the advantage of fabricating clean and high-strength joints in the process of laser transmission welding dissimilar transparent thermoplastics. However, the joining behavior between metal powders and thermoplastics is vague. Herein, polyarylsulfone (PASF) and polycarbonate (PC) are selected as model materials to investigate the joining behavior using magnesium zinc alloy (MZA) powders at different laser line energies. The shear force test was performed to reveal the effect of laser line energy on the welding. The µ-CT images reveal the evaluation of welding strength is attributed to the specific joint morphology. The multi-scale morphology characterization shows that the fractured surface height increases with increasing the laser line energy. The voids between MZA powders and resins increase the risks of interface failure, and the bubbles in the resins increase the risks of cohesion failure. The effects of laser line energy on the joint characteristics are elaborated based on the thermo-physical property test and transient temperature field analysis. The above results indicate the optimized welding temperature locates the melting temperature of PASF, because of the good fusion of PASF and less decomposition of PC. The study can provide a guideline for choosing proper process parameters when choosing metal powders as laser absorbents in welding dissimilar transparent thermoplastics.