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The Laser User Magazine
Issue 052 - Autumn 2008
Case Study: Remote welding in the automotive sector
Author: Thomas Schwoerer
One of the main drivers for industrial laser applications has been the automotive industry. Laser cutting and particularly laser welding are increasingly used in the manufacture of the car body and frame, engine and power train, seat frames and many other parts.
Most successful has been the use of solid state lasers with optical fibre delivery and beam-sharing capability, in combination with robots due to their flexibility in the installation of solid-state lasers featuring and flexible laser light cables for transporting the beam to the
work pieces. The development of such laser processes started with conventional laser applications where only the robot motion defined the processing geometry. In the next step, the robot motion was combined with the motion of highly-dynamic optical scanner system.
This combination of technologies allows to utilise synergies of the flexibility of 3D robot processing and highest productivity from the dynamics of laser scanner optics. Advanced robotic laser scanner welding has become the benchmark for efficient and economic high volume production. Productivity of these technologies is several times higher when
compared to conventional welding technologies.
Laser source design
Over the last few years solid-state laser technology has evolved from lamp pumped rod systems to the so-called high brightness diode-pumped disk and fibre laser systems. The use of diode emitters greatly increases the optical efficiency of the pumping source (e.g. to ~ 65% for disk lasers) and the improved conduction of the disk and fibre geometry over that of the rod greatly reduces thermal lensing and its effect on achievable beam quality. For example, new disk lasers are designed in such a way that the temperature inside the crystal disk laser remains constant across its surface.