Environmental regulations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are getting stricter, and the demand for replacing the fuel of ships with eco-friendly fuels instead of heavy oil in the shipbuilding and marine industries is increasing. Among eco-friendly fuels, LNG (liquefied natural gas) is currently the most popular fuel. This is because it is an alternative that can avoid the IMO's environmental regulations by replacing fuel. In PART 1, as a basic study of laser welding of high manganese steel materials, a fiber laser bead-on-plate experiment was conducted using nitrogen protective gas, and the effect of each factor on the penetration shape was analyzed through cross-sectional observation. In PART II, argon and helium shielding gases, not the nitrogen shielding gas used in PART I, were tested under the same experimental conditions and the effect of the shielding gas on penetration during laser welding was conducted.

Environmental regulations of the IMO (International Maritime Organization) are becoming more and more conservative. In order to respond to IMO, the demand for replacing the fuel of ships with eco-friendly fuels instead of conventional heavy oil is increasing in the shipbuilding and offshore industries. Among eco-friendly fuels, LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is currently the most popular fuel. LNG is characteristically liquefied at -163 degrees, and at this time, its volume is reduced to 1/600, so it is transported in a cryogenic liquefied state for transport efficiency. A tank for storing this should have sufficient mechanical/thermal performance at cryogenic temperatures, and among them, high manganese steel is known as a material with high price competitiveness and satisfying these performance. However, high manganese steel has a limitation in that the mechanical performance of the filler metal is lower than that of the base metal called ‘under matching’. In this study, to overcome this limitation, a basic study was conducted to apply the fiber laser welding method without filler metal to high manganese steel. To obtain efficient welding conditions, in this study, bead-on-plate welding was performed by changing the fiber laser welding speed and output using helium shielding gas, and the effect of each factor on the penetration shape was analyzed through cross-sectional observation.

Due to stricter environmental regulations of the International Maritime Organization(IMO), the number of ships fueled by Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) is rapidly increasing. The International Code of the Construction and Equipment of Ships Carrying Liquefied Gases in Bulk(IGC Code) limits the material of tanks that can store cryogenic substances such as LNG. Among the materials listed in the IGC Code, ASTM A553M-17 has been recently adopted as a material for LNG fuel tank projects because of its excellent mechanical properties at cryogenic temperatures. In shipyards, this material is being used to build tanks through Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW). However, there is a problem that magnetization occurs during welding and there is a big difference in welding quality depending on the welding position. In order to overcome this problem, this study intends to conduct basic research to apply laser welding to ASTM A553M-17 material. In this study, a study on penetration (HAZ depth, Penetration) and welding defects during fiber laser welding according to three types of shielding gases(nitrogen, argon, and helium) was conducted. To this end, a Bead on plate(BOP) experiment was performed under four fiber laser conditions(Power, Speed) for each shielding gas and welding defects caused by the use of the shielding gas were compared through cross-sectional observation, and the penetration depth was analyzed.