**Li Cui 1,\*, Zhibo Peng 1, Xiaokun Yuan 1, Dingyong He <sup>1</sup> and Li Chen <sup>2</sup>**


Received: 29 October 2018; Accepted: 20 November 2018; Published: 23 November 2018

**Abstract:** Autogenous laser welding of 5A90 Al–Li alloy sheets in a butt-joint configuration was carried out in this study. The microstructure characteristics of the weld metal and base metal in the horizontal surface and the transverse section of the welded joints were examined quantitatively using electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) technique. The results show that the weld metal in the horizontal surface and the transverse section exhibits similar grain structural features including the grain orientations, grain shapes, and grain sizes, whereas distinct differences in the texture intensity and misorientation distributions are observed. However, the base metal in the horizontal surface and the transverse section of the joints reveals the obvious different texture characteristics in terms of the grain orientation, grain morphology, predominate texture ingredients, distribution intensities of textures, and grain boundary misorientation distribution, resulting in the diversity of the microhardness in the base metal and the softening of the weld metal. However, the degree of the drop in the hardness of the weld metal is highly correlated to the microtexture developed in the base metal.

**Keywords:** Al–Li alloys; laser welding; weld metal; base metal; grain orientation; texture
