Laser welding of newly developed Al-Li alloy

General Information

The LAWENDEL project aims to develop laser welding processes for aerospace applications by combining expertise in model based process design at the University of Manchester with a systematic experimental approach by the project coordinator, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon. The objective is to study the laser weldability of a newly developed Al-Li alloy, to determine the process parameters needed to obtain consistent laser welds, and to compare the mechanical behaviour with the conventional aluminium alloys series. The study will emphasize the microstructure characteristics and the mechanical properties of the weld joint to gain an understanding of the underlying factors controlling the performance of the welds. Three demonstrator panels will be welded by using the optimized parameters defined from the previous phase and then inspected by NDT in order to assure the structural integrity. The innovative combination of state of the art modelling and experiments will enable physics based optimization of the welding process with greatly reduced time and cost compared to traditional trial and error methods.
The project is co-funded by the Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative (CS JTI) which is a Public-Private Partnership between the European Commission and industry.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	SP1-JTI-CS-2012-02
Project Type	Clean Sky Project
Contract Number	Grant Agreement 325703
Co-ordinator	Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon (DE)

Total Eligible Costs (€)	Hereon Eligible Costs (€)	EC Funding for Hereon (€)
150.000	82.987	62.240

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Nikolai Kashaev, Institute of Materials Research, WMF Phone: +49 4152 87 2536, Fax : +49 4152 87 2549 E-mail contact

Participants

HELLENIC Aerospace Industry S.A. (GR), University of Manchester (UK)

Last Update: 18. May 2021