Laser welding with highly integrated sensor technology – Implemented in industry

Abstract

For any manufacturing process the high demand on the quality of the produced parts can only be guaranteed by the use of reliable tools and continuous supervision. In particular this is a fact in laser materials processing, especially since high brightness beam sources have found the way to industry. It is for this reason, that process monitoring and process guiding systems fully integrated in processing heads gain more and more interest for the use in modern industrial laser applications.This presentation will describe new approaches for industrial laser welding applications by the use of modular processing heads. Several modules and their utilization will be explained, starting from devices to oscillate the laser spot in order to increase the gap bridging capability to the use of sensor technology to evaluate the resulting quality even in laser welding of aluminium. In this context it is obvious, that some demands of the interface between the optical fibre and the work piece, the laser processing head, especially from the point of modularity will be part of the deliberations.For any manufacturing process the high demand on the quality of the produced parts can only be guaranteed by the use of reliable tools and continuous supervision. In particular this is a fact in laser materials processing, especially since high brightness beam sources have found the way to industry. It is for this reason, that process monitoring and process guiding systems fully integrated in processing heads gain more and more interest for the use in modern industrial laser applications.This presentation will describe new approaches for industrial laser welding applications by the use of modular processing heads. Several modules and their utilization will be explained, starting from devices to oscillate the laser spot in order to increase the gap bridging capability to the use of sensor technology to evaluate the resulting quality even in laser welding of aluminium. In this context it is obvious, that some demands of the interface between the optical fibre and the work piece, the laser processing head, e...