Above: Laser welders, like LightWELD, are an extra tool in the modern welding toolkit.
Written by: Joe Roy, Laser Welding Manager, IPG Photonics
November, 2024: Since the introduction of portable air-cooled handheld laser welders, these devices have slowly but surely been making their way into the hands of more welders. But alongside this rising popularity comes a healthy dose of skepticism. Are the early adopters too eager to believe common selling points? Or does laser welding really live up to the hype?
To get a better idea of how fabricators have been taking advantage of laser welding, IPG sat down with welders and managers to learn more about their real-world applications.
IN THE FIELD
A common concern for welding operations is ensuring laser safety, particularly for field welding. However, Apollo Machine, one of the largest machine shops in Western Canada, turned to laser welding for critical repair work on a section of heavy-duty oil sands equipment.
According to Doug Hamre, R&D manager at Apollo, repairing the crack in the equipment’s 25-ft. by 65-ft. plate, which was ¾-in. thick and made of low-carbon pressure vessel quality steel, was not well-suited for MIG welding due to in-service fatigue and the high heat input of arc welding. Traditional weld repair methods risked microstructural changes that could worsen the fatigue issue or leave defects that could lead to premature failure. They noted that each day the equipment was down represented an estimated productivity loss of $8 million.
Hamre, who cited good experiences with laser welding in previous projects, determined that LightWELD fit the bill for this application after consulting the customer’s engineers. After establishing safety protocols and setting up a temporary on-site laser welding booth, LightWELD was used to quickly repair the equipment, the quality of the work being confirmed with radiography of the finished weld repair.
Hamre says this is just one example of the power of laser welding. “Laser welding has let us take on more business. We have customers coming to us when conventional welding isn’t working.” After 11 months in service and tens of millions of cycles, the repaired equipment is still performing like new.
PRIORITIZING QUALITY
In the world of industrial automation, laser welding is a popular choice for manufacturers that need to prioritize speed, quality and precision.
Industrial Sales & Manufacturing (ISM), a medium-size fabricator located in Pennsylvania, wanted to see if the same benefits applied to manual welding.
ISM, which focuses on high quality and providing a broad range of capabilities, often takes on challenging projects. One such project involved a 14-gauge assembly that required extensive prefab fit-up and fixturing to minimize warping caused by arc welding methods, not to mention time-consuming post processing.
Joe Tomasik, process and estimation manager and plant engineer at ISM, realized that laser welding could simplify production. According to Tomasik, ISM has used LightWELD to save a significant amount of time on this job and others. “With LightWELD, we don’t have to do any spatter cleanup or tweaking. We just weld the parts together and nothing moves it’s awesome.”
EXPANDING YOUR TOOLKIT
Apollo Machine and ISM are among thousands of fabricators that have found success with laser welding. But laser welders like LightWELD are not a replacement for traditional welding methods they are best thought of as an extra tool in the modern welding toolkit.
For fabricators that are interested in expanding their capabilities with laser welding, LightWELD can be tested in-person, or fabricators can send samples to the manufacturer for a free evaluation or view in-depth demonstrations.
LightWELD, https://www.lightweld.com/experience/
