Macro material processing of metallic structures is the main focus of the research group Laser Production Technologies at the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technische Universität München (TUM). Within the project RoFaLas “robot based scannerless remote welding with fiber laser“ funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) the research group studies the welding of lightweight construction materials with a 8 kW fiber laser. The high laser power, the high efficiency and the excellent laser beam quality are the main advantages of this system. At the Laser 2007 the iwb demonstrates a live remote laser beam process with conventional steels. The presenta-tion shows the requirements for remote laser beam welding applications and the extended safety technology for using high-power lasers.

Robot Path for Remote Laser Beam Welding

As a promising technology, remote laser beam welding has been established to save time and money by reducing auxiliary process time to a minimum. While fast beam guidance by scanner devices is state of the art, robot based remote laser welding systems without scanners seem to be the next level. Within this technology beam guidance is realized only by robot movements of simple and cheap standard optics. To compete with scanner systems, fast path planning for robots is crucial. The iwb presents its developed path planning algorithms to solve this problem, regarding requirements and boundary conditions by the process and machinery. A live demonstration of the developed tools and of optimized robot movements is given at the exhibition.

The shown results were developed within the project RoFaLas, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Structural model stability within the welding distortion simulation

The numerical examination of the distortion due to laser beam welding is based upon several mathematical-physical analogous models. As a result of the complex coherences between the considered physical phenomena, abstracted simulation models are required. Within the scope of the FOSTA research project “Distortion of welded steel materials – research of the structural stability”, the admissible ranges of the reduced models are to be analysed. The methodical proceeding of the laser beam welding process modelling should support the expressiveness of the simulation results.