Handheld laser welding is state-of-the-art technology that is gaining in popularity. Laser welding offers a range of benefits over traditional MIG and TIG welding methods that make it a practical choice. The many reasons include faster welding speeds, higher quality welds, easier to learn and operate, range of materials and thicknesses, and it being relatively safe.
According to Mike Sharpe, executive director of sales for materials joining at Fanuc America Inc., handheld laser welding equipment is currently one of the best sellers in the laser industry. Sharpe and Fanuc recently worked with Serra Laser, a reseller of IPG’s LightWeld handheld laser welder and Fanuc’s CRX cobots. Serra has developed the LightBot package by integrating the CRX cobot with unique software, which also offers speed, quality, ease of use and efficiency.
“We showed them how to create an app that allowed direct communication to the handheld laser welder – which really was never intended to be automated,” Sharpe says. “We helped guide them on what the specification needed to be, how to control the device, how to trigger the timing based on positioning and all the attributes that really provide a high-quality weld in an economical package.
“This is a gamechanger,” he adds “We’re talking about $100,000 for a functioning laser package. Put a Class 1 enclosure around it and a shop can produce laser welded parts for about $130,000. There are other brands and other types of handheld laser welders that we also have capabilities to integrate, as well.”
Cobot benefits
The CRX cobot brings a lot to the laser welding table. It’s a typical Fanuc high-performance industrial robot that offers good path performance and repeatability. The CRX line ranges from about a 900-mm reach on the 5-kg model up to a nearly 2-m reach on the new 30-kg unit.
“It’s great for laser welding because cobots put down quality welds every time,” Sharpe says. “It takes a lot of effort to hold down a 30-in. or 40-in. seam with good weld quality and most people can’t do it. Our big CRX 30, however, can produce 2 m of weld length, and it’s a high-quality laser weld with its low heat input and low distortion.”
There are a few hidden values that allow the handheld laser welder to work so well with the CRX cobot, including Fanuc’s Force Contour software.
“It provides a safety feature where the tip has to be in contact with the workpiece for the laser to start,” Sharpe says. “It keeps that torch guided against the workpiece so it’s safe using the factory interlocks. It’s even a measure of safety beyond what there would be in a typical industrial environment. Fanuc’s force contouring uses the built-in sensing capabilities of the CRX cobot so no additional hardware is required. The software is set
with a force contour start icon on the programming timeline. Next you add the welding sequence to start and control the laser and then teach the welding points along the seam. Force Contour will push the welding torch along the workpiece and is programmable. Serra Laser has added control functions to make this repeatable no matter what the joint changes look like. This is especially useful when the system is running in the Class 1 enclosure, behind closed doors, enabling reliable production.
“Another hidden value is that you can grab the welding gun, which is mounted on the end of the CRX, and move it just like you’re processing a handheld laser welder, but now you’re guiding the robot along its path,” he adds. “That’s the teaching aspect. And then the Force Contour guides the laser along the seams providing the appropriate speed and the consistency and that gives you your quality weld.”
Icon approach
A hidden value that takes the handheld laser welder and CRX system to the next level is the new interface software. Serra Laser developed specialized LightBot icons specifically used for programming the LightWeld when used with the CRX cobot system. The CRX uses a timeline method for programming whereby the CRX arm is moved to different positions and icons are swiped up to a timeline that tell the cobot what to do.
“You literally slide the icon up into the working area, which is a horizontal timeline,” Sharpe says. “It’s a type of flow programming; there’s no real text to look at. It’s just very intuitive and simple. It’s kind of like editing a movie on your tablet or phone.”
There’s full control of the laser welder through the LightBot app. This includes the pulse parameters, power parameters, wire feed control and wobble width. They can all be changed on the fly directly from the CRX controller. In fact, the LightBot app has full control of the wire feeder, allowing the user to make the highest quality welds with most any filler material.
“The guys at Serra Laser are really who made this happen,” Sharpe notes. “That is the uniqueness of it. With some of our guidance, this smaller company developed this application, which is groundbreaking.”
Going beyond handheld laser welders, when an industrial laser in the range of say 3 kW or 4 kW is added to the cobot arm, the Fanuc laser interface function package takes it to another level. Fanuc developed this new hardware and software to offer the highest speed and direct control of today’s industrial lasers. The most recent development takes this high technology and then adds it to the Fanuc CRX lineup.
“That same functionality is under the yellow robots that we sell to OEMs and large integrators of Fanuc products for cutting, welding and other processes,” Sharpe says. “The same functions are there, but we’ve taken that board and tied it into the same DSP in the CRX and we’ve used the software and developed our own icons where we can do more complex applications. Tying the high-speed board into the cobot controller DSP offers true level-up capability of performance and control.
“Many integrators are interested in this technology,” he adds. “We started with the basics and built on that to make it more high performance and more to automotive and OEM specs. And we’ve kept building on it with other types of customers that we work with regularly and they’ve used our technology within theirs to go after different market spaces.”
Application driven
That scenario of catering to the automotive industry makes sense as part of the larger laser welding market.
“When you look at the laser market, laser demand is being driven by the application,” Sharpe says. “One of the problems over the years has been the price of entry and that’s why you always see new applications that are in automotive because they have the volume and the capital to be able to afford the laser systems.”
Today, the quality and look of a laser weld, which is very smooth and clean, appeals to many OEMs. For automotive repair, the quality of a cobot laser weld is “just like it came down the production line.”
“In addition to OEMS, automotive aftermarket people are interested in this technology,” Sharpe says. “Companies that make sheet metal components such as formed stampings
and many other products are happy to replace MIG welding with a process that produces no spatter; there’s no clean up and the quality is exceptional.”
Another area in automotive is electric vehicles, he adds. Laser welding is key to producing the batteries, housing and components. It enables the production of consistently high-quality batteries and battery assemblies.
The benefits of laser welding are becoming more important for other industries and smaller markets, as well. Products made from steel are a good example.
“Take seasonal lawn care machinery,” Sharpe says. “One of the issues manufacturers are always facing is weld spatter. They are forced to spend time cleaning the workpieces with abrasives and other methods. Laser welding can help eliminate spatter issues by producing a clean, almost hermetic weld.”
Sharpe concludes by saying, “The thing that I find exciting is all the changes that have happened in the last 20 years or so. When I started here 36 years ago, the CO2 lasers were the size of a pickup truck and now they are literally the size of a suitcase; they don’t require water cooling and the power density is incredible. We’ve really done a lot of work perfecting our cobots – they really shine in the laser area.
“The cool thing for manufacturers and other companies is that we’re able to bring our expertise and resources to share with other people,” he concludes. “It’s a very small community. That’s also a compelling aspect of my job and to me.”
