Among the available high-strength steels, there is growing demand for dual phase (DP) steels for wide application in the automotive industry owing to their good combination of high strength, ductility and formability. Also, the use of innovative welding technologies like laser beam welding (LBW) has growing importance in the field of high-strength steel because of its excellence in providing high-quality welds, high welding speed, high power density, low heat input, a narrow heat-affected zone and low heat distortions as compared to the conventional gas metal arc welding process. However, the hardening and softening in the heat-affected zone is a major issue when welding high-strength steel, i.e. DP steel grades, greatly affecting the strength, formability and plasticity of the whole-welded joint and thus affecting service performance and reliability. Based on preliminary experiments, the optimal welding condition was a nominal laser power of 1.0 kW and a welding speed of 8 mm/s. The aim of this work is to analyse and compare the weld and heat-affected zone characteristics, microstructure and mechanical properties of DP steels with 1-mm thick butt joints of DP800 and DP1200 high-strength steel (HSS) by diode laser beam welding. The effects of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on the strengthening of the laser-welded joints were evaluated by microstructural examinations under optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, and mechanical properties were examined by microhardness test, three-point bending tests and tensile tests.

In this paper, heat affected zone characteristics of DP1000 steels was investigated during diode laser beam welding (LBW). A butt-welded joint of specimen in dimension of 300 x 150 mm each (according to EN15614-11:2002) with 1 mm thickness is used for the experimental purpose. The welding thermal cycle and the cooling circumstances in the HAZ was determined by real experiment and the physical simulation. A Gleeble 3500 thermo-physical simulator was used to physically simulate the coarse grain heat affected zone (CGHAZ) on the base material specimens by the utilization of the thermal cycles for t8/5 =2.5 s. The results of the physical simulation were validated by real welding experiments. The properties of the simulated and the real HAZ was examined by optical microscopic, scanning electron microscope and hardness tests.