Application of laser welding in the foreign automobile industry：
1) Body-in-white laser welding
Laser welding in the automotive industry is used extensively for the assembly and connection of body-in-white stamped parts. Main applications include laser welding of roof covers, laser brazing of trunk lids, and laser welding of vehicle frames.
Another important vehicle body laser welding application is the laser welding of vehicle body structural parts (including doors, body side frames, pillars, etc.). The reason for using laser welding is to improve the strength of the car body and solve the problem of difficult-to-implement conventional resistance spot welding in some parts.
2) Unequal thickness laser welded blanks
The use of unequal-thickness laser-welded blanks in body manufacturing can reduce the weight of the body, reduce the number of parts, improve safety and reliability, and reduce costs.
3) Welding of gears and transmission parts
Application of fiber laser welding in shipbuilding and marine engineering
Many ships first manufacture many independent partial component structural units, and then assemble them one by one on the slipway in the water. It is very suitable to use laser welding technology to manufacture partial components of marine buildings. Because it combines welding and cutting automation technology with laser technology. Compared with arc welding methods, productivity can be greatly improved using this technology.
In shipbuilding, fiber laser technology allows components to be welded together without the need for welding edge preparation and pre- or post-weld heat treatment. Compared with arc welding, laser welding has a narrow welding joint, a small heat-affected zone, and no welding defects caused by arc blow or electrode wear that occur in traditional arc welding methods. Therefore, the use of fiber laser welding for joints can realize new welding structure designs, which was impossible before. Welded joints are more economical and of better quality than arc-welded joints.
Application of laser welding in aircraft manufacturing:
Laser beam welding has the advantages of high energy density, small heat-affected zone, flexible spatial position conversion, being welded in an atmospheric environment, and minimal welding deformation. It is mainly used in the splicing of large aircraft skins and the welding of skins and long stringers to ensure the shape tolerance of the aerodynamic surface. In addition, laser beam welding technology is also widely used in the assembly of fuselage accessories, such as the wing boxes of ventral fins and flaps. The structure is no longer completed by using an inner rib frame support structure and an external skin. Instead, it uses advanced sheet metal forming technology and laser welding technology to complete the welding and joining in three-dimensional space. Not only the product quality is good and the production efficiency is high, but the process reproducibility is good and the weight reduction effect is obvious.
Laser welding is also commonly used in the manufacture of thin-walled parts, such as air inlets, bellows, oil pipelines, variable-section ducts, and special-shaped closures. The traditional welding methods for these parts mostly use micro-arc plasma arc welding or low-current tungsten arc welding. With the extensive use of titanium alloy materials, even if these low-energy welding technologies are used, traditional welding processes are still facing the fate of being eliminated due to reasons such as welding deformation caused by thin-walled materials that exceed the tolerance range and welding defects that cannot be repaired. Laser beam welding coupled with local protection measures is ideal for welding thin-walled titanium alloy housing parts.