Laser welding joins ferrous metals, stainless steel, precious metals, titanium, and aluminum alloys with no fillers and minimal or  no heat.

The burst of light of a laser beam is exceptionally intense, extremely narrow in line width and highly coherent. It is the coherent property which is important in laser welding, as it allows one to focus the laser beam to an image that is brighter than the original source. Thus, it is possible to obtain a light source so intense it can melt a hole in any opaque material. Interestingly, because the laser passes through transparent substances, it can melt metals sealed in glass or plastic containers. One hundred percent of the laser light will be reflected off the rear mirror and thirty to fifty percent will pass through the front mirror, continuing on through the shutter assembly to the angled mirror and down through the focusing lens to the work piece.

Since the actual welding is done by a light beam, only a clear line of sight is required and direct contact with the work piece is not necessary. Welds can be made where the joint is normally inaccessible to conventional electrodes or soldering tips. Also, since the beam is in focus in only a narrow region, it is possible to pass through the outside of a metal container (up to .040” thick) and weld from the inside!

Advantages of Laser Welding

Lasers are able to weld with high accuracy, low heat input, extremely high speed and are capable of producing high quality welds. Lasers can join metals that are not weldable by conventional methods: weld hard-to-reach areas, weld extremely close to heat sensitive parts, and process parts with magnetic fields.

• Low-temperature process
• Accuracy and repeatability
• Can weld close to heat sensitive parts
• Hermetic and/or vacuum seal
• Narrow weld zone possible (<.020” wide)
• No filler or weld rod required

Laser welding is a high-production process that is optimized for specific applications. Our lasers are capable of providing up to 1250 watts of continuous pulse energy. Focused power densities of millions of watts per square centimeter can be produced. This energy is now capable of welding metal materials.

Laser welding is accomplished in the open air with an inert cover gas and is unrestricted by the tight vacuum chamber required of the electron beam welder.

When laser welding, the amount of heat generated in the part itself is usually maintained at room temperature while the weld is being produced. The reason for this is that the laser can be pulsed and has a duty cycle less than 20%. This means that the laser may be on for about 20% of the time and off for the balance thus disallowing heat to be built up on the part.

Laser welding a 304 SSST vacuum chamber ring. CNC control allows precision welding in 3 or 4 axis of motion. Very complex, vacuum-tight precision weld joints can be produced in a production environment.

Advantages of Laser Welding Compared to Other Processes