Every new technology follows a predictable path of adoption: It begins with the innovators, migrates to early adopters, gets picked up by an early majority and then, ultimately, becomes an everyday commodity. In European manufacturing hubs like Germany, laser welding technology crossed that threshold decades ago. Driven by automotive OEMs that needed ultra-fast, high-precision welds that they then demanded from their Tiered suppliers, laser welding transformed from a specialized process into a widespread shop floor capability.
For years, the U.S. market lagged behind, requiring extensive industry education to justify moving away from traditional arc welding. Today, however, the U.S. fabrication industry is standing on a major precipice. Over the past decade, job shops and OEMs have made massive investments in upstream equipment. They’ve deployed high-power fiber laser cutters, automated press brakes, panel benders and punching machines all with the goal to streamline their operations.
While these investments moved companies closer to the concept of a smart factory, they exposed a missing piece of the puzzle: welding. Even though they could cut and bend parts in minutes, everything would pile up at welding – the area where, coincidentally, the skilled labor shortage can be the most glaring. Robotic welding stepped in to assuage those issues, but for some applications, it wasn’t enough.
Meanwhile, the assumed early adopters in aerospace, automotive and electronics – SpaceX, Ford and Apple – are doing what their European counterparts did years ago: They’re demanding laser-welded precision from their supply bases that are discovering the technology’s advantages and applying it to other work.
Adding those positive experiences to the surging demand for data centers proves that the time is right for American manufacturers to adopt laser welding. Robin Stuhler, head of product management, weld, at TRUMPF Inc., says the U.S. fabrication market is ready for it.
“So many of our customers, especially here in the United States, have the equipment they need to be more flexible,” Stuhler says. “They have laser cutting and bending capabilities, punching machines and panel benders, and large storage systems. The overriding goal is to achieve smart factory status to overcome labor issues and be flexible enough to basically build anything, which is a beautiful thing.”
And now, they’re introducing laser welding as the last piece of the puzzle. They’re ready to bridge the gap between bending and final assembly with turnkey, automated solutions like the TRUMPF TruLaser Weld 5000.
Tool with a purpose
Early in his career, Stuhler had the opportunity to intern in the United States at the TRUMPF North American headquarters in Connecticut. He had already seen laser welding’s popularity in Europe and was ready to sing its praises in America. Instead, he was confronted with uncertainty and a lack of familiarity.
Since then, the U.S. market has shifted significantly, and part of that has to do with the introduction of handheld laser welding. Stuhler no longer has to explain what the technology is or its benefits like he did during that early internship. While handheld laser welding products lack the repeatability, process control and safety needed for high-volume, high-precision production, they introduced the industry to laser welding and delivered that missing level of familiarity.
“It helped our cause – all of a sudden, everyone was interested in laser welding,” Stuhler says. “The problem with handheld solutions, however, arises the second you need repeatability for runs of a thousand parts. Handhelds struggle with maximum speed and, unfortunately, the possibility for human error is still there.
“There’s also the safety aspect to be aware of,” he adds. “Users can breach those safety features so easily, so it requires a lot of training and oversight.”
From a high level, handheld laser welding doesn’t offer the built-in safety that solutions like the TruLaser Weld 5000 provide and it also doesn’t offer the control that many applications require. The technology can still be useful in several situations, however.
“Every tool has its purpose,” Stuhler says. “Think of handheld laser welding as a simple drill. It can do certain jobs, but you wouldn’t use it in a manufacturing line. You’d need something capable of handling higher volumes.”
A superior process
Somewhere in the middle of the smaller shops using handheld laser welders and the automotive manufacturers using custom solutions integrated into rigid production lines are the fabricators that need a productive, turnkey system. Stuhler says the TruLaser Weld 5000 incorporates everything these fabricators need: all of the knowledge and experience TRUMPF has accumulated over the years working with the large OEMs during their initial forays into laser welding.
“Until now, laser welding had been OEM-centric, specialized and delivered as an integrated solution,” he explains. “TRUMPF, however, has been involved with laser welding adoption since the beginning – in both Europe and now in North America – and has incorporated all of those important features into the TruLaser Weld 5000.
“During its design, we specifically thought about job shops, sheet metal OEMs and anyone building their smart factory,” he adds. “These customers want to be versatile, and this machine, which is a modular system, can do everything from sinks and toilets to electrical cabinets and car parts.”
Over the years, several reasons have emerged that position laser welding as the industry’s superior welding process. For starters, it’s incredibly fast. Delivering speeds up to 180 ipm, heat input is drastically reduced, which helps to prevent part distortion and deformation and ensures tight tolerances.
Additional benefits are found through processes like heat conduction welding, which produces smooth, high-quality seams that reduce or totally eliminate post-weld grinding. Furthermore, TRUMPF’s advanced beam shaping technology plays into keyhole stability. When keyhole stability can be maintained, fabricators can avoid porosity, one of the biggest culprits affecting overall weld strength.
“If you don’t have control over your keyhole, it collapses,” Stuhler says. “And that leads to pores, porosity and impurities, which reduces the strength of the weld. The more pores you have in that area, the weaker your weld seam.
“Heat input from conventional welding can cause a part like a server rack to deform and twist, which creates major problems downstream,” he adds. “These racks need to fit precisely inside their associated cabinets.”
Countless opportunities
The number of opportunities surrounding the data center boom is massive. There are literally countless parts and applications for fabricators to produce. There are the specific components that make up a data center – the microchips, electronic connections, cabinets and cooling bodies. And then there’s everything that goes into the physical building – the windows and doors and everything else. “It’s a whole ecosystem,” Stuhler says.
For the fabricators that want to get into the data center boom, bottlenecks at the welding department won’t cut it. Using a common server rack as an example, it would be hard to produce 1,000 of them a week if it takes 7 min. to cut everything, 10 to 15 min. for bending and then 60 min. plus for welding and potential grinding.
“If you can build them fast enough, there’s no end to the business you could take on – the demand is that huge,” Stuhler says. “But the welding can’t create such a huge bottleneck. Either you invest in many machines and many welders or you let the TruLaser Weld 5000 do it in 6 min.”
In the past, experienced welders did their best to keep up with high-quality welds. If the cutting and bending upstream wasn’t precise, they had the skills to overcome those issues. To get the output they need, fabricators are increasingly looking to laser welding as a strategic investment.
Next-level tech
“What our customers are doing is pretty impressive,” Stuhler says. “They’ve locked down their cutting and bending department and are looking to take their welding to the next level. They’re handling thousands of different components, managing the material flow and making sure everyone knows what to do.
“Every technology plays a role, software plays a role and every person plays a role,” he adds. “Laser welding is what enables you to keep up with that pace and that productivity.”
When customers are ready to grow their welding capabilities, Stuhler says TRUMPF will be an ideal partner. After all, the company has been embedded in the world of sheet metal manufacturing for more than 100 years. It was founded in 1923 in Germany and established in the United States in 1969 and has, therefore, served as a strategic partner for countless major corporations.
“We understand sheet metal and the whole chain from cutting and bending to software,” Stuhler says. “We can help with everything: design, application development, fixtures and whatever our customers need. Furthermore, we build our own lasers, fibers and optics to ensure they work together seamlessly.”
“Eighty percent of laser welding’s success comes down to understanding the design and the fit up, so we’re happy to help customers achieve exactly what they need with the technology,” he adds. “When everything comes together, the actual welding is so easy.”
Stuhler says the fabricators investing in the technology are reducing their cost per part with the production of higher quality welds and they’re increasing their throughput by eliminating the welding bottleneck.
“The big picture points to the fact that the United States is ready for laser welding,” he concludes. “The demand is here and the requirement to grow and produce more is here. There’s so much to weld in this market, so with or without the TruLaser Weld 5000, it will come. And when that happens, I will encourage everyone to be careful and invest in the right tool for the job.”
Laser welding, as exemplified in this article, has totally revolutionized metal joining, and Techgen Media has been on top of it. To learn more, check out our archive of laser welding articles.
