  The laser beam weldability of acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene (ABS) plates is
determined by combining both experimental and theoretical aspects. In modeling
the process, an optical model is used to determine how the laser beam is
attenuated by the first material and to obtain the laser beam profile at the
interface. Using this information as the input data to a thermal model, the
evolution of the temperature field within the two components can be estimated.
The thermal model is based on the first principles of heat transfer and
utilizes the temperature variation laws of material properties. Corroborating
the numerical results with the experimental results, some important insights
concerning the fundamental phenomena that govern the process could be
extracted. This approach proved to be an efficient tool in determining the
weldability of polimeric materials and assures a significant reduction of time
and costs with the experimental exploration.
