Investigation of the phase composition and mechanical characteristics of laser welded joints of aluminum-lithium alloys

A study of laser welding of modern aluminum-lithium alloys has been carried out. Optimization of post heat treatment of laser welded joints has been carried out. The change in the structural-phase composition of welded joints was investigated. The strength of welded joints after heat treatment was equal to the strength of the base alloy.

DEVELOPMENT OF A TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING WELDED STRUCTURES

the main goal of this article is to obtain welded permanent joints of modern thermally hardened aluminum and aluminum-lithium alloys made by laser welding, having mechanical characteristics (temporary tensile resistance, yield strength, elongation at break) and structural-phase composition close to or equal to the base alloy. It is shown for the first time that by controlling the parameters of heat treatment of samples with a welded joint of all studied aluminum-lithium alloys, it is possible to purposefully influence the formation of the specified mechanical properties of the weld by changing the structural and phase composition of the weld. The evolution of the struc-tural and phase composition of welded joints of thermally hardened aluminum and aluminum-lithium alloys has been investigated using modern independent diagnostic methods: for the first time, the use of synchrotron radia-tion diffractometry in combination with high-resolution transmission, scanning electron and optical microscopy. The dependences of the increment of deformation under cyclic loading with amplitudes exceeding the elastic limit on temperature are established. For untreated welded joints, it was found that at +85 C, the inhomogeneity of the deformation increment increases, and its speed increases by 8 times for alloy 1461, 5 times for alloy 1420 and 1.5 times for alloy 1441. At a temperature of -60 0C, alloys 1420 and 1461 have hardening stages, during which the value of deformation decreases at given boundary stress values. At +20 0C, there is a uniform increment of defor-mation and an increase in the amplitude of deformation with an increase in the amplitude of stress. At +85 0C, the strain amplitude does not change with increasing stress amplitude, its value is 0.55-0.5 of the strain amplitude at +20 0C. Based on the research results, technological techniques have been developed that allow obtaining me-chanical characteristics and structural-phase compositions of welded joints close to the main alloy during laser welding of aviation thermally hardened aluminum and aluminum-lithium alloys of the Al-Mg-Cu. Al-Mg-Li, Al-Cu-Mg-Li, Al-Cu-Li systems.