Introduction and Typical Applications of Laser Cutting and Laser Welding Processes

Since American scientist Meiman developed the first ruby laser in 1960, laser technology has rapidly developed with the needs of global technology and economic development, especially in the past decade, greatly promoting the wider application of laser processing technology. Laser has four characteristics compared to ordinary light, namely monochromaticity (single wavelength), coherence, directionality, and high light intensity.

Laser beams are easy to transmit, and their time and spatial characteristics can be controlled separately to obtain extremely small light spots after focusing. Laser beams with extremely high power density can melt and vaporize any material, and can also perform precise and rapid machining of local areas. During the machining process, the heat input to the workpiece is small, and the heat affected zone and thermal deformation are small; High processing efficiency and easy implementation of automation. Laser technology is a comprehensive high-tech field involving optics, mechanics, electronics, and other disciplines. Similarly, laser processing equipment also involves many disciplines, which determines its high-tech and high yield. Looking at the international and domestic laser application fields, after years of research and development and improvement, contemporary lasers and laser processing technologies and equipment have become quite mature and formed a series of laser processing processes. In addition, various new laser processing techniques are constantly emerging.

From an international perspective, laser processing is mainly used for cutting, welding, surface treatment, marking, and drilling. Two dimensional and three-dimensional laser cutting account for 65% of laser applications. Laser welding accounts for about 20%, while laser drilling and marking account for less than 10%. Laser surface treatment, including laser phase transformation hardening, laser deposition, laser surface alloying, and laser surface melting, only accounts for about 5%. From the development and application of domestic laser processing technology, more and more users have recognized the unique excellent performance, high flexibility, and high efficiency of laser processing. At present, laser technology has been widely used in the aerospace industry, automobile manufacturing industry, switch industry, gear industry, railway locomotive manufacturing industry, and metal material processing industry.