The development direction and market forecast of laser welding

Nowadays, laser manufacturing technology is quickly entering the production lines of all walks of life, with laser marking, engraving, cutting and welding as the main application processes. In addition, laser repair and laser cleaning are also used in a small number of specific scenarios. For a long time, laser welding has been considered to have great market potential, but due to insufficient laser power, workpiece fixtures, and higher thresholds for automated control research and development, market applications have not been well developed.

In the past, laser welding mostly used the more traditional YAG lasers and CO2 lasers, and the equipment was mostly low-power laser mold welders, advertising welders, jewelry spot welders, word welders, hardware welders, etc., which belong to the low-end The traditional laser welding stand-alone equipment, the technical threshold is not high. This low-power welding machine can only do simple welding for specific industries such as molds, glasses, jewelry, and advertising characters, and has a narrow application range. Therefore, until 2013, the size of my country's laser welding market was less than 2 billion yuan.

The development direction of laser welding

To expand the application of laser welding, a breakthrough in laser technology and power is necessary. YAG lasers are generally 200 watts, 500 watts, and the number of kilowatts is very small, and the power limit is obvious. Although the power of CO2 laser is reachable, its wavelength is 10.64μm, the spot is large, it is not easy to realize precision welding, and the transmission of CO2 beam is difficult to realize three-dimensional and flexible welding. Motion control is a big challenge.

At this time, the semiconductor laser appeared, it has two modes of direct output and fiber-coupled output. Semiconductor lasers are very suitable for soldering, plastic welding, metal welding and other fields. The power has already reached more than 6KW. Laser brazing is also used in the automotive and aerospace fields. However, since the price of semiconductor lasers has always been relatively high, fewer people choose. Fiber laser has a relatively small spot, which is suitable for cutting, but not suitable for welding. People are cleverly using optical control after beam output so that fiber laser can also be used for welding. This is how wobble shakes the output head. Relying on the mature use of fiber lasers, high market acceptance, and complete industrial supporting facilities, fiber laser welding has quickly developed and the precision welding effect is very good. Now that the laser power of 10,000 watts has matured, high-power laser welding has broken through the limitations of the original traditional welding equipment. It has been applied in high-end fields such as rail locomotives, motor motors, battery manufacturing, aircraft manufacturing, body manufacturing, aerospace parts, etc. .

After solving the laser and power problems, a breakthrough in the welding control system is necessary for laser welding to achieve great development. In the past two years, hand-held laser welding has achieved good shipments, because the price of a set of laser welding equipment has dropped sharply, only six to seven thousand yuan, while a set of traditional low-power argon arc welding is cheaper than three to five thousand yuan. It also costs tens of thousands of yuan. Moreover, the laser welding speed is fast, the welding surface effect is good, and the sealing performance is good, which has become the choice for many engaged in hardware processing. However, hand-held laser welding still relies on manual labor after all, and there is no automation. In the past, a single piece of traditional laser welding machine had to manually place the workpiece, and then take it out after welding, which was very inefficient. In the future, in addition to a few extra-large parts, high-value-added structural parts need to be customized welding, such as rail locomotives and aerospace parts, and most other mass-produced industries need automated laser welding production lines, such as batteries, communication devices, Watches, consumer electronics parts, etc. Laser welding is only one of the processing rooms. In addition, it needs to be equipped with loading and unloading, conveying systems, and high-speed and high-precision welding control, which requires very high workpiece fixture design. If there is a breakthrough in this area, it will open up many applications for laser welding.

Power battery promotes the development of laser welding

Since 2015, the Chinese government has vigorously promoted the development of new energy vehicles, mainly electric vehicles. On the one hand, it reduces automobile exhaust pollution caused by the use of oil, while at the same time, it can promote the replacement of automobiles and promote the consumption economy. In the past five or six years, sales of new energy vehicles have increased significantly, and many automakers have also joined the ranks to launch electric vehicles. The country's long-term goal is to allow new energy vehicles to account for nearly one-third of annual sales. Then the core technology of electric vehicles is of course the battery. The large demand for power batteries has driven the rise of companies such as BYD, CATL, Guoxuan, Ganfeng Lithium, and Yiwei Lithium Energy.

Power batteries have brought a lot of demand for laser processing. The manufacturing process requires laser cutting of tabs, and laser welding is more commonly used. Connecting sheets, batteries, copper materials, aluminum alloys, battery packaging, etc. are all used Laser welding. The laser equipment of the power battery is a highly automated production-line workstation with a certain threshold. At present, only a few companies such as Han's New Energy, Hymson, Lianying, Huagong Laser, Yifei, and China Everbright have intervened. Power batteries have brought new breakthroughs to the demand for laser welding, driving more than 2.5 billion demand for welding equipment in 2020.

Stable chiller for welding

Power batteries are only one area that opens up the application of laser welding. In the future, we predict that more industrial processes will use laser welding, and the process will become mass-produced when the process is mature. Laser welding often requires reliable parts and stability of welding quality, but requires stable and reliable heat control, and a better chiller is required for the laser.