Product Code: ICAL07_209

New Application Possibilities for Fiber Laser Welding
Authors:
Gunther G, Fraunhofer IWS; Dresden Germany
Berndt Brenner, Fraunhofer IWS; Dresden Germany
Eckhard Beyer, Fraunhofer IWS; Dresden Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2007

Due to their unique design, fiber lasers offer new possibilities in the field of laser welding. Especially their higher focusability is known to allow narrow and deep welds which help to increase weld performance and reduce heat input. But, as such beam sources are not yet common in industrial environments, their possibilities and main application fields are neither widely known nor fully assessed. Therefore typical weld parameters and applications are presented. In addition, an outlook is given on very deep penetration welding with part thicknesses greater than 10 mm. Until now such configurations could only be joined by applying a high heat input or creating a large weld, e.g. by using high beam powers (> 10 kW) or hybrid processes (Laser+ MAG welding). It will be shown that plates can be welded up to a thickness of 20 mm with just 4 kW of beam power while maintaining a narrow weld shape. This is possible by combining an optical setup with a low beam divergence and a multi-pass filler wire process on a special joint design.