In a considerable proportion of the published work on the subject of laser–oxygen cutting of mild steel, the details of the oxidation reaction are overlooked or confused. For example, it is not uncommon for the oxidized material to be attributed with the physical characteristics of iron rather than iron oxide. Also, the fact that the oxidation reaction cannot take place above a certain temperature limit is usually overlooked. This paper presents, for the first time, an in-depth analysis of the Iron to FeO oxidation reaction in the context of laser–oxygen cutting of mild steel. The paper concludes by presenting a number of guidelines for future theoretical models.

The dynamical behaviour of the laser beam fusion cutting process of metals is investigated. Integral methods such as the variational formulation are applied to the partial differential equations for the free boundary problem and a finite dimensional approximation of the dynamical system is obtained. The model describes the shape of the evolving cutting kerf and the melt flow. The analysis is aimed at revealing the characteristic features of the resultant cut, for example, ripple formation and adherent dross. The formation of the ripples in the upper part of the cut, where no resolidified material is detectable, is discussed in detail. A comparison with numerical simulations and experiments is made.

A recently completed project called Economical and Safe Laser Hybrid Welding of Structural Steel (HYBLAS) has developed the use of hybrid laser welding for thicker section steels up to 690 MPa yield strength.1 The full project involved several European organisations, was part funded by the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel (ERFCS) and was led by Corus RD&T. This paper presents an outline of those parts of the project which relate to those developments which resulted in being able to laser hybrid weld, in a single pass, up to 25 m plate thickness using 20 kW of laser power at speeds of 1 m min-1. Multipass and dual sided welding techniques have also been developed up to 30 mm plate thickness and fillet welds up to 20 mm steel thickness. The project examined the weldability of steels from 180-690 MPa and operational windows for defect free welding were defined. In addition various NDE methods were studied for their efficiency in regard to the defect types whic h can occur in laser hybrid welds. The fracture and mechanical properties of the joints were shown to be perfectly acceptable for all structural uses and an extensive fatigue testing programme demonstrated that the fatigue behaviour of the welded joints exceeded conventional welding expectations. Finally full scale industrial components were manufactured, inspected and tested to demonstrate that the anticipated fatigue benefits were obtained

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