FOCUS ON LASER WELDING
Jose-based designer and manufacturer of optical and photonic products, it has developed an innovative, beam-shaped laser welding technique to dramatically increase the reliability of welded joints between dissimilar metals.“ In a bid to meet the growing demand for lightweight and environmentally friendly vehicles, this process will allow manufacturers to join mixed materials in an efficient way that does not limit performance,” said the university.
The laser welding solution uses novel laser beam shaping approaches for joining different materials. The project focused on the manufacturing of battery packs, where there is huge potential to substantially impact the electric vehicle sector moving forward.
The project highlighted significant benefits of laser beam shaping technology over traditional laser welding including creating a larger weld area, reducing weld defects and improving gap bridging, ultimately resulting in stronger joints. Unlike traditional laser welding, which directs the beam in a single spot, the new beam shaping technology provides the ability to manipulate the way that the materials react.
Handheld laser welding
Many industries rely upon conventional, manual arc welding processes such as MIG / MAG or TIG welding. However, argues TWI( an independent research and technology organisation in the UK), handheld laser welding( as an emerging technology) looks to promise faster, more versatile, costeffective and consistent results. As with conventional arc processes, handheld laserwelding is performed by an operator with an in-built safety control whereby the beam is automatically shut off as soon as the system moves away from the workpiece.
“ Despite the promise offered by this emerging technology, there is still a lack of standardised assessment methodology and supporting data to validate the claims of the technology. This has made industry hesitant to adopt handheld laser welding. TWI Industrial Members are invited to join a new joint industry project( JIP) focused on the industrial adoption of handheld laser welding technology,” commented TWI, on its website, about the project.
“ This project will solve this issue through an independent, third-party assessment and validation of handheld laser welding technology, focusing on the ability to make sound welds, health and safety, environmental impacts( e. g. welding fume and scattered radiation), and tolerance of the process in relation to weld quality and mechanical properties. The independent validation of the technology’ s performance, robustness, safe operation and capabilities will be benchmarked against conventional manual arc welding
Image: Shutterstock. com.
Image: Shutterstock. com.
Laser welding on a metal workbench.
Handheld laser welding.
approaches( including MIG / MAG and TIG welding processes), to provide an industryready comparison,” it added.
This project will include the adoption of a visual camera working at around 200 frames per second to investigate the details of welds made using the handheld technology. TWI will also use an accelerator sensor attached to the welding gun to collect data for analysis on weld quality and stability. n
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