Reduced Ambient Pressure Improves Solid-State Laser Performance & Reduces Spatter

By Christian Börner and Klaus Dilger

In the German publicly funded research project “LaReD,” investigations are conducted to exploit the potential of high brilliance solid-state lasers and enhance the quality of the joints they produce. This project is being carried out at the Institute of Joining and Welding in Braunschweig, Germany, and is supported by the German Welding Society.

The objective is to enable the use of these modern solid-state lasers for components with the highest requirements on weld seam quality — e.g., in gearbox manufacturing for the automotive industry. In this case, a process environment  featuring reduced pressure during the welding procedure constitutes the crucial difference when producing high-quality weld seams. To be clear, this is not a vacuum, but only a reduced pressure. The characteristics of the weld quality improvement already occur under a reduced pressure of about 100 hPa and are fully completed in a pressure range from 10 to 1 hPa. Continue reading →