Synergistic effects during hybrid laser-arc welding may cause increased process efficiencies.\nHowever, the basic interactions behind these effects are still being discussed, with some contradictory\nreports. In this study, particular welding parameters of interest were systematically varied to further\nthe understanding of involved phenomena. The experimental trials are evaluated regarding their\nsynergistic achievements in terms of process efficiency, melting efficiency and energy coupling\nefficiency using a factorial two-level Design-of-Experiment (DoE) approach. The results show that\nthe growth in process efficiency can be attributed to a dramatic increase in melting efficiency whereas\nthe energy coupling efficiency is only moderately increased. Thus, the synergistic effect is mainly\ncaused by secondary mechanisms that change the energy usage inside the work piece while direct\ninteractions between the two heat sources can be excluded as a reasonable cause for increased process\nefficiencies. It is concluded that the different sizes of the heat sources change the heat and mass flow\npositively and consequently lead to a higher performance level.
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