Welding is a process without which most of the modern world would be bereft of its technology and innovations. Everything from high rises to aerospace assemblies to vehicles and intricate medical devices make use of welding. It is an affordable, easy to leverage means by which structural integrity can be maintained and joints are provided with a degree of support to hold firm large structures.
Almost all forms of welding demand a continuous inflow of fuel to ensure a steady flame or arc and a high intensity of concentrated power to eliminate the probability of fusion defects. In particular CO2 welding results in low quality of the welded joints and splattering. In a bid to overcome these shortcomings of conventional processes, laser welding has emerged as a preferred choice. Nd:YAG in particular has been frequently leveraged in electronics, medical and fluid coupling industries.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIBRE LASER:
The latest trend in high power, high constraint welding is the use of fibre lasers. They consist of continuous wave (CW) or quasi-continuous wave (QCW) pump light sources coupled to rare earth metal doped optical fibres. The doping converts the light beam to a laser beam that is largely comprised of photons emitted due to spontaneous transitioning of electrons.
This output travels at a very fast pace through the fibre and is pulse shaped down to sub-millisecond resolution for defined spot welding. It is capable of joining very hard aerospace (Nickel and Titanium based) alloys with zero tolerance for cracks and porosity.
THE ADVANTAGES OF FIBRE LASERS:
Fibre lasers are catching on because they have a wide array of advantages recommending them over conventional options:
They have a very small wavelength of 1 um and thus a correspondingly high frequency. This allows for unprecedented power density.
Fibre lasers have high processing speeds and get the job done faster and more efficiently.
Since the output is delivered through an optical fibre, mirror manipulations are not needed and less power is lost through reflection and scattering.
Fibre lasers are brighter than their Nd: YAG counterparts and the beam can thus be shaped and focused with great accuracy to boost concentration.
Boasting better absorption by good conductors, fibre lasers offset their initial high investment with low operation and maintenance costs.
Last but not the least, fibre lasers can effortlessly weld dissimilar metals with the help of filler wires which allow for alignment of disparate pieces to provide an excellent join.
Hi-Tek Manufacturing has been a vanguard in Electrical Discharge Machining, Laser Processes, NC Milling, CNC Turning, CNC Grinding and Associated Process Support Services. It brings to the table high quality industrial fibre laser models which can easily revolutionize difficult welding under constrained (misalignment of pieces, danger of rapid oxidization of welded joints and so on) conditions. Call us at (513) 459-1094 to know more.
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