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Laser Welding
Laser welding of metals has significant advantages
over traditional welding methods such as arc, TIG, and plasma welding
processes. When weighing these advantages, consideration must be given
to factors such as material composition, overall part size and
configuration, manufacturing environment, weld quality &
precision, processing time requirements, and processing cost
requirements. Solid state lasers (such as Nd:YAG) are most often used
for low to moderate power applications.
(Tech Note: U.S. Laser Corp 'Welding Article')
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US Laser offers an assortment of both traditional
Pulsed and Continuous-Wave (CW) lasers tailored for a variety of
applications. Typically, Pulsed lasers are employed for Lap
(penetration) welding requirements, whereas CW Lasers are used when
Seam (Butt) welding is required. There are a few requirements in which
a Q-switched laser may be applicable. However, review of individual
customer requirement is recommended to ensure the proper laser is
selected for the intended application.
In its simplest form, US Laser can provide a stand
alone laser system for OEM applications. In this configuration, the
laser head and associated optics are mounted on an optical rail, which
is connected to a separate power supply / cooling cabinet by means of
electrical cables and cooling lines. A beam delivery system (viewing
and focusing module) can be incorporated as a means of directing the
laser output to the work-piece. Fiber-optic beam delivery, conventional
fixed beam delivery, and Galvanometer based (scanning) beam delivery
systems are available depending upon the given application.
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Lamp-Pumped
Lasers
US Laser lamp-pumped Nd:YAG lasers employ the use
of high-efficiency, long-life krypton arc-lamps to excite a solid-state
Nd:YAG laser rod located within the laser cavity. The configuration of
the cavity is optimized to provide high wall-plug efficiency and stable
operation. Both fundamental TEM00 and multimode output modes are
available. US Laser offers lamp-pumped lasers in single and multi-head
configurations, with output powers ranging from several watts to 2400
watts average CW output power (link to US Laser CW systems) , up to 200
Watts average AO Q-switched output power, (link to US Laser QS systems)
and up to 400 Watts average Pulsed output power. (link to US Laser
Pulsed systems)
Diode-Pumped
Lasers
Unlike their lamp pumped counterparts, Diode
Pumped Lasers use high efficiency, long life solid state diodes as
their pump source. Because of the excellent beam quality, US Laser
Diode-Pumped Lasers can generally be focused to smaller spot sizes, and
may be suitable for various low power welding applications. US Laser
offers CW & AO Q-switched lasers in TEM 00 and multimode
operation with output powers from several to 100 Watts, though higher
laser output configurations are available as required on a custom
basis. (link to US Laser Diode-Pumped systems)
Custom,
Turnkey Laser Systems
US Laser offers custom, automated turnkey laser
systems for laser welding applications. The 4000 Series Industrial
Laser Systems are designed to perform demanding, precision laser
processing tasks in a production environment. The Nd YAG Laser System
combines accuracy and precision with stability and ruggedness for
applications such as welding. (link to US Laser Machining systems) In
addition, we offer several integrated cabinet laser systems which are
designed for high output CW laser operation using fiber-optic beam
delivery, and interfaced to a customer supplied PLC. link to US 408-2
and 408-4 CW systems)
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