Welder World Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Laser’

Laser processing encompassing laser welding, laser cutting, laser drilling and laser system integration is the most advanced manufacturing technology that is rapidly gaining popularity. Be it in any industry, military, medical, aerospace engineering, automotive, space propulsion or hi-tech manufacturing, processing by laser beams have immense benefit and is the best solution to organizational needs and manufacturing equipments as precision laser cutting leads to accuracy and perfection.

Laser welding is used in delicate surgeries as well as in processing industrial materials. Such is the diverse nature of benefit of laser welding. It is the intense beam of concentrated heat source that is directed to melt, as well as heat or even vaporize selected area of any type of material. Laser welding is the most modern technique of welding and it leads to no distortion of material. Laser welding is an excellent tool for welding any kind of materials.

Laser welding is always preferred to conventional welding as it has a small HAZ (heat affected zone), deep penetration with excellent precision, consistent joints with minimal distortion due to heating, no secondary processing, faster weld rates and high repeatability. The choice of laser for welding depends primarily on the thickness of the material, its type and also penetration requirement. There exist two main types of beam delivery options used in case of laser welding such as through fiber optic cable and conventional beam delivery.

Again, precision laser cutting is the more popular and effective than the traditional cutting process. The reason is obvious. It is accuracy that holds the key to success of precision laser cutting. In the manufacturing industry quality and accuracy are very important aspect; precision laser cutting is an excellent tool. The benefit of laser cutting is far too many. It is not only flexible and fast but it is a cost-effective mechanism as well. Again in precision laser cutting the material does not come into contact with the cutting tool while in the traditional method of cutting the material has a physical contact with the cutting tool. This physical contact may lead to contamination or distortion of the material and the cutting tool may even get distorted or break down while cutting. Precision laser cutting does not lead to such issues. Additionally traditional cutting cannot be used in all types of materials, but precision laser cutting is used for any material with any kind of thickness.

Besides these other laser services include alternative to conventional drilling system that is laser drilling that provides with accurate holes with maximum precision and is very fast too. If you do not compromise on quality, then laser processing suitably tailored to industry requirement is the solution of the manufacturing industries in the long run.

In recent years, the use of laser beams in welding has steadily increased due to continuous demand for precised steel products in construction and other industrial purposes. Due to many of its advantages, the technology of laser welding is being used in a wide variety of applications in the metal fabrication industry. Many welding experts are now recognizing how efficient laser welding is when it comes to producing better quality fabricated metal products at better productivity and much lower cost.

One of the main advantages of laser welding is its versatility. It is applicable for combining welding steel structures or miniature electronic materials in excess of 1 inch thick. Laser beams are not used only for cutting thick steel plate, they are also capable of cutting other pieces of metal, from structural metal, pipe steels to aerospace components, with magnificent power ranging from hundreds of watts to 60 kilowatts. In fact, weld lines can be as narrow as 0.1mm (0.004 inch).

A typical laser welding equipment consists of a laser beam generator, beam-directing optics to transfer the beam to the work and focus it to the needed spot size and power density. It also has a workstation that normally contains a workpiece handling machine that may either feature automatic or manual loading and unloading. The sophistication of laser welding technology allows stainless steel, ferrous metals and even alloys to be joined themselves or each other.

Another advantage of fabricating metal with a laser is the capacity to engrave and cut at the same time. This means that better productivity, welding speed and accuracy in fabrication are achieved. Laser beams can also produce good-looking welds without post-processing. Many laser welding machines these days have the ability to create welds that are full penetrating and with improved material strength without undergoing any finishing operations.

Moreover, laser welding creates a low heat affected zone, hence causes minimal welding distortion in the metal. It is even safer than other forms of mechanical cutting such as router cut signs or saw cut signage. Working with laser beams doesn’t require physical contact and there’s no unsafe cutting edge which can become contaminated by the metal.

Laser welding plastics is a fairly new process. It super heats the polymer without physical contact. Most applications processes are done by, directing the beam of infrared light. Directly at the weld joint. This is done by going through one of the parts. Commonly referred to as, through transmission.

By directing infrared beam of infrared light at the weld joint via( a laser)welding. This technique, the infrared beam, usually a laser, irradiates the joint through a part and the light is absorbed at the surface of the other. While broad band infrared beams can be used, the monochromatic lasers allow very fast heating of small areas of the part that allows the parts to be welded very rapidly, but with very small changes to the geometry part.

Laser welding is a example of electromagnetic plastic welding process. Once radiant energy it has been directed towards polymer surface, a series of three things will happen to it, most of the light transmits through, some is absorbed, and some is reflected away. The application the process involves directing the beam of infrared light towards the weld joint through one of the parts. The part (laser) that transmits most of the energy will not heat, but the absorbing part will super heat .Most virgin, organic polymers will not absorb energy. Certain dyes and fillers such as carbon black are used. To absorb the energy at the weld joint interface. This is commonly called to as through transmission infrared (or laser) welding. Welding results when materials are heated to a molten state and fused together.

One type of material must transmit the laser light while the other absorbs it, While converting it to heat. The great news is that the materials must be transmissive. This all depends on formulation of the pigment. Joints that require optical clarity can be done by the use of special coatings types. Thermoplastics, Laser welding, resin compatibility , resin chemistry or melt temperature differences than most all other plastic welding processes these days.

Nd:YAG laser welding is used commercially, a wide range of C-Mn steels, stainless steels, coated steels, molybdenum, titanium, and aluminum alloys. Low heat input welding. These lasers is utilized in the electronics, domestic items, automotive sectors, the most interest has been shown more recently, to particularly for the high power CW lasers in the shipping industry. Oil and gas, R&D issues involving development of highly powered lasers of better beam quality, the use of distributed energy in the beam focus, maintenance for both thick and thin sections and weld classification.

Light energy is generated by lasers. That can be absorbed into materials and converted to heat energy. Laser emits coherent radiation. Lasers do minimal divergence that can travel over significant distances without loss of beam quality or energy.

Relatively new techniques in Laser welding have been compared to other plastic welding processes. Dedicated laser labs at EWI’s are equipped with lasers creating and analyzing plastics welding. The laser beam used to melt the base material and filler rod, this process becomes line of sight ,as well as focal point limited process. If you cannot get a straight shot, or you can’t re-line the position of the weld area, it will not work efficiently or correctly. Microscopic magnification is also is used in the laser welding process.

The system is capable of welding materials that are galvannealed, electroplated or hot-dipped galvanized, that the coating thickness be both consistent on top of surface of the material, as well as controlled to 14 microns or less. The 3-kW diffusion-cooled slab laser used in the Utica system can be used to weld materials, ie mild steel, high-strength steel, stainless steel, aluminum. The biggest driving factor behind the development of laser welding is the fact that it makes the cans more esthetically attractive.

Beam delivery used optics that are mounted directly on the laser housing and fixed in focal length and beam position relative to the housing. Moveable part concept ,diode lasers mounted on robotics. Multiple-beam processing is new , relatively new field that has the potential. Enhancing the capabilities of high intensity laser and electron beam process.

Post heating, multiple-beam laser preheating is shown, first presented and analyzed. Followed by multiple-beam flow. this application electron beam welding. Other applications using laser machining and cladding. Particles with high melting points were distributed on the plate material in order to see the motions of these particles. And the enclosed motions of the melt pool during welding with different type of process gases. Photos show a change in the melt flow direction ,with active gas components towards the center of the pool and downwards towards the root side.