The influence of laser welding parameters on the microstructure and mechanical property of the as-jointed NiTi alloy wires

The Nd:YAG laser welding was used to join the binary NiTi alloy wires with different compositions(Ti-50.0 at.%Ni and Ti-50.9 at.%Ni) which had the same diameter of 1 mm. The wires were welded with different parameters, including impulse width and welding current. The aim was to assess the influence of the laser-welding process on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the welded joint of binary NiTi wires. The optical microscopy (OM) and the metallographic microscopy (MM) were used to analyze the microstructure of the welded joints. The tensile test and the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were carried out to examine the ultimate tensile strength and the reverse martensitic transformation temperatures of the welded joints. It was found that the welding current and the impulse width had great influence on the quality of the welded joints, an optimal parameter combination would remove the pores and micro-cracks appeared in the fusion zone, and result in good mechanical properties such as higher fracture strength and elongation. The laser welding had a few effect on the reverse martensitic transformation temperatures of the welded joints. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.