Equipment for laser metal welding: technology and devices

Equipment for laser metal welding: technology and devices
Welding is a very important process in production. Such an apparatus, where a laser is used as an energy source, is called laser welding, which is used to join the same and dissimilar metals. It is the most modern method for welding metal parts and has attracted more and more attention in recent years.

Such welding was created in the 60s of the XX century. The advantage of laser radiation is a high accumulation of energy. This allows you to join various metals and alloys with a thickness of a micrometer to one centimeter.

Laser radiation creates a weld in this way: it is directed into the focusing system, where it is converted into a smaller beam, absorbs, heats and melts the materials to be welded. In laser welding, guide mirrors are used to focus energy.

Micro-welding connects material up to 100 microns thick, mini-welding melts at a depth of 0.1 to 1 mm, macro-welding is capable of soldering parts with a thickness of more than 1 mm. Depending on the position of the parts and the laser beam, the soldering pattern can be:

end-to-end;
overlap;
corner;
Other options.
Laser welding technology
The luminous flux generated by the laser is monochrome. All flux waves, in contrast to the solar spectrum, have equal wavelengths. This facilitates flow control by focusing lenses and deflecting prisms. The phenomenon of wave resonance occurs in the laser, which greatly increases the trigger power.

The principle of operation of laser welding is based on the absorption of the laser beam energy by the metal in the working area. In this case, strong local heating occurs.

Laser welding technology resembles gas welding technology. Preparatory operations consist in mechanical treatment and chemical degreasing of the joint zone. Further, the laser beam is directed to the beginning of the seam, the metal is heated, melted and a weld pool is formed. The beam moves along the seam line, followed by the weld pool and the crystallization zone.