Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Nickel-plating Thickness on Continuous-wave Laser Welding of Copper and Steel Tab Joints for Battery Manufacturing

The welding of dissimilar materials, such as copper and steel, holds significant industrial significance in the production of electric vehicle batteries. These materials are commonly used in the case of connections between busbars and cylindrical cells inside a battery pack. To optimize welding and guarantee protection against corrosion, nickel is commonly used in the form of a coating. In this paper, the effect of nickel plating thickness on copper-to-steel welds made with laser technology is investigated. The initial phase consists of a statistical characterization of the nickel plating thickness of the busbar in order to identify the thickness ranges. Experiments were conducted using two different fiber laser sources (a single-mode laser source and a beam-shaping laser source) equipped with a Galvo scanner head; the fluence value and the thickness of nickel plating varied during the experiments. The study conducted has revealed that the thickness of nickel plating plays a crucial role in the weld bead interface, particularly when using a single-mode source. Furthermore, when using the beam-shaping laser source, the fluence employed can have a significant impact on both the depth of penetration and the interface width.