Mechanism of laser welding on dissimilar metals between stainless steel and W-Cu alloy

CO2 laser is employed to join a piece of powder metallurgical material (PMM) to a stainless steel in butt joint welding mode. The powder Ni35, as a filler powder, is used. The weld metal comes from three parts of stainless steel, powder Ni35, and Cu in W-Cu PMM. It is indicated that some parts of the W-Cu base metal are heated by laser and the metal Cu at the width of 0.06-0.12 mm from the edge is melted into the melting pool in the laser welding process. The formation of firm weld joint is just because that the melting liquid metal could fill the position occupied by metal Cu and surround the metal W granules fully. The analysis results indicate that the mechanism of the laser welding for stainless steel and W-Cu alloy is a special mode of fusion-brazing welding.