As a new processing method, laser manufacturing technology has developed particularly rapidly in the past decade. It has gradually penetrated into the processing and manufacturing production lines of all walks of life, replacing traditional processes. Its advantages of high efficiency and relatively environmental protection are favored by many users. The mainstream growth trend of the laser application market is from the earliest low-power code marking, to medium and high power cutting, and then to today's high-power and precision welding. By 2021, laser cutting will still be the most important field, but in fact, in the past three years, the average growth rate of laser welding equipment has been higher than that of cutting equipment, becoming the next hot spot of laser application, especially in automobile, power battery, new energy and other industries, which have driven the rapid growth of high-end laser welding equipment, as well as the general application of handheld laser welding.

Laser welding belongs to non-contact welding. The operation process does not require pressurization. Its working principle is to directly irradiate the high-energy laser beam on the surface of the material. Through the interaction between the laser and the material, the internal part of the material is melted, and then cooled to form a weld.

More than a decade ago, the main laser used for laser welding in China was solid state lamp pumped laser, which had a large energy consumption and volume. In order to solve the problem that the direction of its optical path was not easy to change, fiber transmission laser welding equipment was introduced. Later, inspired by hand-held fiber transmission equipment in other countries, we produced our own handheld laser welding machine. This is China's "first generation of hand-held laser welding machine". The use of flexible optical fiber transmission has greatly improved the ease of operation of the welding equipment.

Hand-held laser welding continues to be hot

Laser welding processing has been developed for many years, but it has been limited by the factors such as small worktable, high requirements for fixture and automation design, high equipment costs, and so on. Since the appearance of handheld laser welding more than 3 years ago, it has been welcomed by market users. Hand-held laser welding equipment is simple in structure, mainly composed of laser, water chiller, hand-held welding head, beam transmission and other components. Manual welding eliminates worktable, complex fixture and operating system settings, and has considerable flexibility, making laser welding as easy as ordinary argon arc welding and resistance welding. It is very easy for general welders to switch to laser welding, and the equipment has become flexible and mobile, It meets the requirements of many small processing plants.

It is worth noting that although handheld laser welding has developed rapidly in China, it is not used in many developed countries in Europe and the United States. It is probably that this naked high-power laser handheld welding operation does not meet the safety requirements of these countries. Compared with hand-held laser welding equipment, the ordinary argon arc welding equipment with a set of several thousand yuan still has cost advantages, and the market stock is very large. The purchase unit price of hand-held laser welding machine has dropped significantly from the earliest 15 million units to even 34 million units today. The decline in the use cost has stimulated a large number of user purchases. In the future, it is expected to maintain an annual shipment of tens of thousands of units, and replace traditional argon arc welding and resistance spot welding in many scenarios. Compared with millions of argon arc welding, laser welding has a huge alternative space.

A wide range of applications

Laser hand-held welding machine can be easily applied to steel sheet, stainless steel plate, metal pipe and other applications. Currently, the commonly used power includes 500W to 2000W. It can easily weld metal materials with a thickness of less than 4mm, and can cover many hardware products in life. For example, the most common ones are doors and windows, handrails and railings in the construction industry. Nowadays, people prefer to use stainless steel or even aluminum alloy. Laser welding can improve efficiency, save welding materials and electrodes, and the welding is very firm. With infrastructure construction and a large number of residential needs, the amount of doors, windows, handrails and railings is huge, and handheld laser welding has great potential.

In terms of sanitary ware, there is a large demand for stainless steel and hardware welding. Faucets, handles, water heating systems, sinks, etc. need to be welded. Handheld laser welding can be a good substitute for argon arc welding. After welding, there is no need for a large number of grinding processes, saving a lot of labor. It is understood that the bathroom industry has gradually realized the advantages of handheld laser welding and has begun to popularize it. The other is the exhaust/ventilation pipe. For example, the area of the ventilation and exhaust pipe in the catering industry and the factory is large, and the galvanized iron or stainless steel is often used. The resistance spot welding method used in the past is very inefficient, and the sealing is insufficient, resulting in odor leakage. Laser welding can be used to fully sew the pipe body one seam to achieve good welding effect.

The kitchen appliances are made of stainless steel, and the knives, shovels, kitchen shelves, etc. are all welded. Laser welding is completely applicable. Many lampshades on lamps are made of metal materials. When cutting, metal laser cutting hollow patterns are used. After rolling, the lampshades are welded. The applicability of hand-held welding is very wide, and the development potential is huge.

Breaking through the limitation of the application scene

The hand-held welding head is equipped with an optical fiber generator, which is flexible and convenient, without the constraints of positioning and fixture, so that the laser welding can be operated outdoors. In addition, the machine is flexible and easy to use, has low technical threshold, saves labor costs, and is suitable for various complex welding joints and spot welding of various equipment. It is capable of processing complex workpieces and large workpieces with irregular shapes. It is suitable for metal welding of various specifications. Even the internal welding of sheet metal and splicing external corner welding can be easily welded to and through, and the workpiece can be welded at any position and at any angle.

Replacing traditional process

Handheld laser welding has obvious advantages in terms of welding speed, welding quality, subsequent treatment (smooth and flat without manual grinding) and other aspects of metal materials such as thin stainless steel plate, iron plate, aluminum plate, etc. In addition, the superior energy-saving characteristics meet the national goal of "carbon peak, carbon neutral", so there is a strong potential to replace traditional processes.

The continuous laser beam quality of handheld welding is good, the energy density is high, and the welding speed is more than 2 times that of solid YAG laser welding and 3-5 times that of argon arc welding; It saves about 80%~90% of electric energy compared with argon arc welding; Its weld seam is smooth and uniform, and it is easy to grind or does not need to grind after welding; Handheld welding is an integrated design. The laser, water tank and control parts are integrated together. It occupies a smaller area and has low requirements for the site. It is equipped with mobile pulleys. The station can be adjusted at any time according to the site requirements, which is convenient and flexible; Handheld welding has the advantages of simple operation, beautiful weld, fast welding speed and no consumables. When welding thin stainless steel plate, iron plate, galvanized plate and other metal materials, it can perfectly replace the traditional argon arc welding and electric welding.

In this era of rapid development, efficiency and quality are important factors to win the market. Capprin is committed to promoting the development of laser technology, growing with the majority of users, and meeting new challenges in the future with better products, higher quality, and better user experience.

About HGTECH: HGTECH is the pioneer and leader of laser industrial application in China, and the authoritative provider of global laser processing solutions. We have comprehensively arranged laser intelligent equipment, measurement and automation production lines, and smart factory construction to provide overall solutions for intelligent manufacturing.