Modern hybrid welding process for structural steelwork engineering—Laser submerged arc hybrid welding

In the past few years, the welding of steel with large plate thicknesses has been gaining importance for the structural steelwork engineering. However, it is nowadays performed by a time-consuming conventional submerged arc welding process. A currently developing technique, the laser beam submerged arc hybrid welding process (LB-SAW), combines the high penetration depth of the laser with the high thermal efficiency of the submerged arc process. This paper presents the latest welding results which were performed using the LB-SAW. It was possible to increase the weldable plate thickness up to 50 mm, while simultaneously increasing the process stability. Furthermore, the influence of different process distances on synergy effects was shown.