Laser-based welding is a popular technique in manufacturing thanks to its versatility and efficiency. It produces narrow, deep welds that require minimal post-processing and without distorting welding materials, making it suitable for marking parts for high-precision industries. Further, laser welding machines are easy to operate, cost-effective and capable of producing accurate and precise welds on many materials.
Laser welding fixtures are essential to achieve the desired precision on your workpieces. They have clamps, locator and supports to hold your workpieces firmly in position to ensure high-quality welds, stability, consistency and repeatability. Laser-based welding fixtures also reduce residual stresses that may cause distortion.
Welding machine fixtures are available in different sizes and materials to suit various laser welding applications. They’re made using materials that can withstand the heat and other rigors of the laser welding process. While most of them are specialized for particular tasks, some accommodate numerous welding requirements.
When deciding on the right fixture for your laser-based welding needs, you must ensure it supports the following fundamental functions to facilitate quality welds, prevent production losses and maximize productivity.
The main purpose of a fixture is to hold parts securely in place to prevent vibrations that misalign the workpieces, causing product deviations and recalls.
Laser-based welding fixtures increase weld quality and accuracy by reducing the risk of misalignment and warping and maintaining consistent component registration and tolerance. This is essential in precision-critical industries like aerospace and medical device manufacturing, where even slight product deviations go against industry standards and regulations, leading to higher reject rates.
Using laser welding fixtures to hold the workpieces in place throughout the process allows you to produce a consistent and well-executed mark every time. By reducing the risk of mistakes, fixtures help produce clean, reliable welds that are within industry standards. Fixtures also allow you to stay within permissible tolerances for the nominal dimensions to optimize production efficiency, preventing part gaps, deformation and mispositioned components.
Laser welding uses a lens to focus a high-intensity laser beam that burns through materials, resulting in the melting and fusion of the workpieces. For the fixtures to be effective, you need them to hold the parts firmly while staying off the path of the beam and the workpieces. An unobstructed path helps to verify component alignment through the camera and other optical systems, preventing part distortions.
The amount of clearance you need to fit the welding torch depends on the welding process you’re using, whether it’s metal inert gas welding, stick welding or gas tungsten arc welding. It should guarantee a clear line of sight so you can see what you’re welding, ensuring you achieve high-quality welds and prevent shadowing and laser beam blockage. You can make adjustments and reposition your workpieces before the process begins for improved continuity and welding efficiency.
For example, unobstructed views during welding are crucial in the automotive industry, where welding takes place in the vehicle chassis, which is a confined space. The fixture also needs to allow enough room to eject welding splatter and allow for openings to be cleaned easily.
Although laser welding is a non-contact process, the workpieces you’re joining need to be in contact to ensure they melt into each other, forming deep, narrow welds. Perfect part contact is especially desirable for the aerospace industry and the electric vehicle battery industry, where gaps or misalignments in the components can cause expensive recalls and production losses.
In the aerospace industry specifically, even the tiniest gaps can lead to catastrophic losses because they allow stress concentrations during flight operations, leading to premature part failure. The gaps from incomplete welding marks also collect contaminants and oxides that cause oxidation and rusting to the backside of welds.
For these reasons, you must choose the right fixture based on the dimensions and weight of your materials. These considerations ensure the fixture provides sufficient support to the workpiece during the welding process to prevent misalignment and deformation. It should also be adjustable to accommodate different sizes and shapes of materials, allowing you to scale your operations effectively.
The best fixtures also allow ideal part contact by providing operators with the autonomy to rotate the fixture and adjust its height to achieve the optimal position and guarantee high-quality welds.
Well-designed fixtures need to facilitate the smooth loading and unloading of components, whether manually or automatically, before and after welding. In fast-paced industries, this speed and efficiency are important for keeping up with competitors. The welding fixture design determines seamless placement and removal of welding materials, ensures you maintain production throughput, minimizes operator errors and boosts productivity.
Fixtures with adjustable clamps can secure a wide variety of workpieces without damaging them at the end when you’re removing the workpiece. Adjustable clamps and quick-release mechanisms also allow easy loading and unloading of workpieces to minimize the time and effort required to complete the laser welding process. If a workpiece is distorted or damaged during removal from the fixture, it necessitates post-processing operations and some stress-relieving.
Laser-based welding fixtures are designed to allow repeatable setups, which ensures operators can quickly reload new parts without readjusting the setups to enable continuous operations and reduce cycle times. Efficient part loading and unloading also decrease the manual labor required to achieve accurate alignment and part positioning. This reduces the margins of human error and boosts production throughput.
There are numerous benefits to opting for laser welding, and welding fixtures are essential for getting the most out of your welding experience. At the same time, you want to work with a professional company that can help you find the ideal laser welding system. At Laser Marking Technologies, we have over 100 years of combined laser experience across our team, and we’re ready to support your laser welding goals.
Laser Marking Technologies offers a wide variety of laser engraving products and solutions to help your company achieve superior laser marking results. We customize high-precision laser welding systems to your company’s needs and workflows to help you increase your throughput and profitability. We can incorporate turntables, conveyors and fixtures to make your laser welding applications more efficient and cost-effective.
Contact us today to request a quote on our laser welding systems, all of which come with a two-year warranty. You can also reach out to us for more information on how we can customize a laser welding system to suit your requirements. We look forward to connecting with you.
