Manufacturing
Laser tailor-welding technology is widely used in foreign car manufacturing. According to statistics, in 2000, there were more than 100 laser tailor-welding production lines for cutting blanks worldwide, with an annual output of 70 million tailor-welded blanks for car components, and it continued to grow at a relatively high rate. . Domestically produced and imported models also use some cut blank structures. Japan uses CO2 laser welding instead of flash butt welding for the connection of rolled steel coils in the steel industry. Research on ultra-thin plate welding, such as foils with a thickness of less than 100 microns, cannot be welded, but through YAG with a special output power waveform The success of laser welding shows the bright future of laser welding. Japan has also successfully developed the YAG laser welding for the maintenance of steam generator thin tubes in nuclear reactors for the first time in the world, and has also carried out gear laser welding technology in the country.
Powder metallurgy
With the continuous development of science and technology, many industrial technologies have special requirements for materials, and the materials manufactured by the application of smelting and casting methods can no longer meet the needs. Because powder metallurgy materials have special properties and manufacturing advantages, they are replacing traditional smelting materials in certain fields such as automobiles, airplanes, and tool and cutting tool manufacturing. With the increasing development of powder metallurgy materials, there are problems with the connection between them and other parts. Appears increasingly prominent, so that the application of powder metallurgy materials is restricted. In the early 1980s, laser welding entered the field of powder metallurgy material processing with its unique advantages, opening up new prospects for the application of powder metallurgy materials, such as the use of brazing methods commonly used in powder metallurgy Low strength, wide heat-affected zone, especially incapable of adapting to high temperature and high strength requirements, causing the solder to melt and fall off. The use of laser welding can improve the welding strength and high temperature resistance.
Auto industry
In the late 1980s, kilowatt-level lasers were successfully used in industrial production. Nowadays, laser welding production lines have appeared on a large scale in the automobile manufacturing industry and become one of the outstanding achievements of the automobile manufacturing industry. As early as the 1980s, European automobile manufacturers took the lead in using laser welding of sheet metal welding for roofs, bodies, and side frames. In the 1990s, the United States actually introduced laser welding into automobile manufacturing. Although it started late, it has developed rapidly. Italy uses laser welding in the welding and assembly of most steel plate components. Japan uses laser welding and cutting processes in the manufacture of body panels. High-strength steel laser welding assemblies are increasingly used in automobile body manufacturing due to their excellent performance. The more, according to the statistics of the US metal market, by the end of 2002, the consumption of laser welded steel structures will reach 70,000 tons, a three-fold increase from 1998. According to the characteristics of large batches and high degree of automation in the automotive industry, laser welding equipment is developing in the direction of high-power and multi-channel. In terms of technology, Sandia National Laboratory of the United States and PrattWitney jointly conducted research on the addition of powdered metal and metal wire in the laser welding process. The Institute of Applied Beam Technology in Bremen, Germany has conducted a lot of research on the use of laser welding of aluminum alloy body frames. It is believed that adding filler residues in the weld will help eliminate hot cracks, increase welding speed, and solve tolerance problems. The developed production line has been put into production in the factory.
Electronics industry
Laser welding has been widely used in the electronics industry, especially in the microelectronics industry. Due to the small heat-affected zone, rapid heating concentration, and low thermal stress of laser welding, it is showing unique advantages in the packaging of integrated circuit and semiconductor device shells. In the development of vacuum devices, laser welding has also been applied, such as Molybdenum focusing electrode and stainless steel support ring, fast hot cathode filament assembly, etc. The thickness of the elastic thin-walled corrugated sheet in the sensor or thermostat is 0.05-0.1mm, which is difficult to solve by traditional welding methods. TIG welding is easy to weld through, the plasma stability is poor, and there are many influencing factors. The laser welding effect is very good, and it is widely used. Applications.
