Application of laser welding head in automobile manufacturing

Application of laser welding head in automobile manufacturing

Laser welding heads have been widely used in automobile manufacturing. After more than 80 years of development, it has gradually developed into a technology applied in various industries. The application of automobile manufacturing has promoted the development of laser welding head to industrialization.

1. Introduction of laser welding head

(1) Principle of laser welding head welding. The laser welding head is a high-speed, minimal deformation, non-contact welding tool, suitable for a large number of continuous online processing. The main principle of a laser welding head is to use a laser to generate a single wavelength beam. Select chemical or electrical energy to generate liquid, solid or gaseous media with optical vibrators. These beams have long propagation distances, small wavelength differences and very high concentration ratios. They form high-power laser beams that act on the metal surface and quickly reach the boiling point and vaporize the metal. When the metal vapor leaves the surface of the metal bath at a certain speed, the stress response is that the molten metal slopes downward and small pits appear. Continue to heat and a very elongated hole will form at this point. As the laser beam moves, the molten metal in front of the orifice will bypass the orifice and flow back, forming a weld after cooling and solidification. The laser head power density determines the depth of the weld. When the power density of the laser head is higher, the penetration depth is larger, and the weld depth and width are larger. When the power density of the laser head is low, the penetration depth is shallow, and the weld depth and width are small.

(2) Classification of laser welding heads. The two main types of laser beam welding heads used in automobile manufacturing are CO2 laser beam welding heads and YAG laser beam welding heads. The corresponding laser welding heads are divided into laser welding heads, laser custom welding heads and laser composite welding heads.

(3) The characteristics of the laser welding head. First of all, it can effectively save materials, speed up processing, and reduce the work intensity of employees. Second, the laser welding head does not directly touch the components, resulting in low noise and strong environmental protection. Third, the thermal influence range brought by the work is very small, resulting in small thermal deformation of product parts; fourth, the welding seam welding quality is high and the appearance is beautiful. Fifth, the laser welding head has complete functions, complete sets or series, convenient and flexible operation, and improved work efficiency. Sixth, the welding precision is high. Laser beam welding machines are equipped with computer numerical control systems and can be used for 2D or 3D machining. Seven is hard, brittle, high melting point, thin material, with special effects.

Second, the application of laser welding head in automobile manufacturing

(1) The large-scale development of the automobile manufacturing industry has become an important trend. In the automobile manufacturing industry, the welding head is an important process and link in the entire vehicle process. The wide application of laser welding heads has greatly improved the work efficiency of welding connections, thus achieving the purpose of optimizing the efficiency of automobile manufacturing processes. Currently, the most widely used welding methods in automobile manufacturing include laser custom welding heads, laser welding machines and laser welding heads. Custom welding heads are an important part of the automotive manufacturing industry. It is widely used in automobile manufacturing, especially automobile body manufacturing.

(2) Laser welded joints help us solve the shortcomings of traditional car body manufacturing methods. The traditional method is to first press and form each part, then solder it. The welding effect is always not ideal, the joint handling is not perfect, and the joint is not very good. In the laser custom welding process, the car body is manufactured in the exact opposite order of conventional methods, with welding first and then stamping. Laser custom welding uses a small number of parts, which can save costs, and can weld steel plates of different materials and different parts with high welding precision. This technology is widely used in the world auto industry. In domestic auto companies such as Chery and FAW, laser custom welding heads are almost used and are the most advanced auto repair technology - vehicle bold.

(3) The application of laser welding head in automobile manufacturing starts from the gear welding of transmission, which requires not only high cleanliness, but also high quality to meet the high requirements of transmission gears for running speed and weight. The laser welding head has the characteristics of high precision and high definition, which can reduce the burden on gears. In the 1980s, the rise of this welding technology by Chrysler, General Motors, Ford and others was the first company to apply laser welding heads to automotive manufacturing. The high efficiency, high quality and low cost brought by the laser welding head have become the guarantee that the American automobile manufacturing technology is in the leading position in the world.

(4) With the application of new magnesium, aluminum and other materials in automobile manufacturing, the requirements for welded joints are getting higher and higher. The laser welding head can not only reduce the production of magnesium-aluminum compounds, prolong the service life, and meet the functional requirements, but also consider the aesthetic appearance. The combination of laser welding head and arc welding head is a laser hybrid welding head, which can also be used as an improvement of laser welding head. It not only improves the stability and welding speed of the laser welding head, but also greatly improves the working efficiency and quality of welding.

With the deepening of China's reform and opening up, people's living standards continue to improve, the demand for automobiles is also gradually increasing, and the requirements for the quality and appearance of automobiles are also getting higher and higher. In order to meet this social demand, Chinese automobile manufacturing enterprises need to introduce advanced processing technology according to the actual situation, improve the work efficiency and product quality of automobile manufacturing, and at the same time reduce costs and ensure the stable and sustainable development of enterprises. Therefore, the extensive application of advanced technologies such as laser welding heads in the automobile manufacturing industry has become the focus of the domestic automobile industry. During the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" period, the laser welding head has been listed as one of the top ten laser heads in the laser head industry. In the future development, the industrialization and scale of laser welding head is still the direction of our efforts.