Product Code: ICA13_104

Vertical-Down Hybrid Welding in Ship Building - The Next Innovation Step
Authors:
Simon Olschok, RWTH Aachen University, ISF; Aachen Germany
Uwe Reisgen, Rwth Aachen University, Isf; Aachen
Christoph Turner, RWTH Aachen University; Aachen Germany
Presented at ICALEO 2013

The laser beam GMA hybrid process has, already since the beginning of the year 2000, been used for applications in shipbuilding. At that, linear welds have been welded as butt welds and also as fillet welds as a solid weld connection in the flat position (PA). It is, therefore, the logical consequence, to extend this spectrum to other welding positions, particularly due to the easy handling of the weld heads of solid-state lasers.
In this lecture, the fully mechanised, sensor-assisted vertical-down welding used the hybrid method is presented. This method shall allow to produce vertical welds which have, so far been produced only manually, fully mechanised as butt joint and also as T-joint at the same time. To this end, the development of the laser GMA vertical weld system with the GMA torch arranged at both sides is currently under way.