Welding is a process that is commonly used to attach metallic components together. The welding process applies heat to adjoining surfaces of the components to be bonded, with or without a filler material, to locally melt the adjoining surfaces and filler material to produce a weld joint. The heat applied during the welding process often alters the metallurgical properties of the metallic components. For example, the welding process may alter the material strength, hardness, ductility, useful life, and other metallurgical properties of the components. The affected region includes not only the weld joint, but also the heat-affected zone around the weld joint that experiences locally high temperatures.
Various pre- and post-weld treatments are known in the art to reduce or minimize the metallurgical changes caused by welding. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,379, assigned to the same assignee as the present application, describes and claims a system and method for heat treating a weld joint to improve the microstructure and strength within the weld joint and heat-affected zone. As shown therein, the system includes heating means, such as conventional lasers, to supply heat before or after a weld joint. Although effective for its designed purpose, the system taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,379 does not include structure or components to modulate the heat treatment applied to the weld joint to accommodate different weld types or welds between different types of materials. Accordingly, providing an improved heat treatment system and method that modulates the amount of pre- and post-weld heat treatment of the weld joint according to the specific weld type or materials would be desirable.