Recent achievements and trends in laser welding of thin plates

Abstract

Laser Welding (LW) is more and more chosen as manufacturing process due to its advantages, namely capability of joining small dimension parts, opportunities for joining of special materials, less Heat Affected Zone, good repeatability, high speed etc. Nowadays, LW is of particular interest in manufacturing small mechatronics parts of mechanic, electric or electronic nature. This paper underscores several achievements in three key-processes, namely classical LW, laser hybrid welding (LHW) and remote laser welding (RLW). These results were obtained at the UPM Laser Centre (CLUPM) of Polytechnical University of Madrid (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid) with a CO2 laser of 3350 W dedicated to RLW of thin sheets for automotive and other sectors, and with a Nd:YAG laser of 3300 W, respectively. The second is operated by a 6-axis ABB robot and is meant for various laser processing methods, including welding. Several important applications experimented at CLUPM and recently implemented in industry are briefly presented: RLW of coated sheets (with Zn or Al), LW of thin sheets of stainless steel and carbon steel (dissimilar joints), LW of high strength automotive sheets, LW vs. laser hybrid welding of Double Phase steel thin sheets, LW of Shape Memory Alloys (NiTi). The way in which the team of CLUPM has addressed some knowledge gaps related to LW, LHW and RLW are underscored, together with the benefits of the new technologies for both science and industry.