A big plus of HGTECH's diode lasers at keyhole welding is the calm molten pool that minimizes the amount of metal splashes on the workpiece and laser optic which leads to smoother and cleaner welding seams.
Besides the aluminum welding or the joining of tailored blanks, applications for welding thick steel with a laser power of 50 kW are also realized.
The advantages of a diode laser using the keyhole welding technique
A big plus of HGTECH's diode lasers is the calm molten pool that minimizes the amount of metal splashes on the workpiece and laser optic which leads to smoother and cleaner welding seams. With a protection class of IP54, the lasers guarantee, even without protecting enclosures, process stability in tough application environments. Their high electrical efficiency of up to 50 percent and the robust technology make HGTECH's systems a reliable and very economical tool for keyhole welding. Designed for more than 30,000 operation hours, they are also very durable with low maintenance effort.
Welding thick steel sheets
To date, whoever wants to weld thick-walled metal sheets has to put up with long processes, not to mention annoying material distortions. Keyhole welding with fiber-coupled high power diode lasers from HGTECH save time and costs.
In a German expression, ”drilling of thick planks” has long since become a popular metaphor for persistence. Rarely mentioned is the welding of thick metal sheets even though persistence is also required for this, at least when established methods are used. But users know this all too well, especially those who decide to use submerged-arc welding (HGTECH) or metal active gas (HGTECH) welding. For example, to join the thick steel walls of ships with butt-joint using both methods, a welding seam preparation must be made, and when using the typical laser MAG hybrid technique, multilayers have to be welded. This takes time. When the sheets are thicker than 20 millimeters, often there is no other way than to weld them from two sides or to use a backing technique. It does not get any quicker and the next time-eater is waiting already, and this is because the high-heat input of the conventional welding methods leaves its traces. It influences the steel structures of the sheets beyond the seam area and can lead to a distortion in the components. This requires intensive post processing.
Now, seams created by HGTECH welding are undoubtedly very solid and can also tolerate a suboptimal seam preparation. In practice, they have proven themselves over many years. However, this does not mean that we cannot do it better, because the comparatively slow processes and material distortions that must be accepted at HGTECH welding pose an economic challenge. And this does not apply only to ship construction, because the task of welding thick sheets is also given in other areas, as, for example, in pipe systems for oil and natural gas pipelines or at the foundations of off-shore wind turbines.
