Laser welding the differential housing and the crown gear has meant a weight reduction of 1.2 kg for this assembly.
Laser welding a synchronous wheel onto a gear. The new fibre laser on the ELC 160 halves operating costs.
The ELC 250 DUO – a compact laser welding cell for the machining of differential housings. The DUO variant features two spindles. The twin-station operation allows for cycle time-concurrent loading and unloading of the work spindles.
transmission, you’ ll find up to 20 welded joints. If you look at the diff on a premium car rear axle, you’ ll find a welded diff / ring gear. This operation is not possible with any other welding process.
AI: What kind of R & D does EMAG do with regards to laser welding and what have some of the consequent product breakthroughs been?
Mootz: First of all, we trust in our knowledge about machine tools and production systems. Next, we focus on a limited number of work pieces / applications. We ask the question,“ what is needed to produce a part in the best way, and what is the most economically viable way to do so?” In the next step, we try to use our toolbox of technologies and machines together with work holding and automation know-how to design a competitive solution. As a result we have many happy customers on our reference list.
AI: Give us some examples of how your laser welding solutions have impacted an automotive manufacturer.
Mootz: One example is our diff case / ring gear process. Welded diffs offer a massive weight reduction and thus better CO 2 efficiency. You find them in many vehicles, and most of them are made on EMAG equipment. This is a relatively new application with some very special demands. Therefore, most customers require massive support to adapt their part design and to develop the process. We try to support this and offer our demo machines for test welds. As a result, we host many OEMs and tiers in our Heubach facility.
AI: How big is the laser welding become in emerging markets and how do you see these markets evolving?
Mootz: As automotive part production goes to emerging countries, laser welding goes there too. Today, we have installations all over the world. In terms of technology, there are no differences between highly industrialized or emerging countries. Today, the difference is more on the system side, e. g. part handling, process integration, quality monitoring / inspection. Our customers in the industrialized countries are looking for true production lines and we expect this to be a trend in the emerging markets as well.
AI: What are some of the new laser tech products that will be launched by EMAG over the next 12 months?
Mootz: You will have to visit the EMO in Hannover next autumn to find out! AI
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