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The part is the 2005 Volkswagen Jetta A5 door anti-side ram, welded by three stampings. There are 12 lap welds on this galvanized mild steel component. Full-load production began in October last year and is expected to produce 317,000 vehicles per year in five years. Because there are left and right doors, the anti-side bats produce 634,000 pieces per year. The Autotek plant operates a two-shift system five days a week, which is equivalent to producing 235 pieces per hour, which means that each part takes about 15.3 s.
Laser welding is specified on the user's parts drawing because the part has been produced in Germany in this way, and the same parts are used in the Mexican factory. To determine the laser welding process that is best suited for this application, Autotek evaluated Nd:YAG lasers for industrial robots and remotely controlled CO2 lasers. As mentioned above, the part is produced in Germany using Nd:YAG lasers and industrial robots. Autotek developed separate solutions for these two welding methods and obtained investment costs from some potential “integrated system suppliersâ€. The conclusions for this application are summarized as follows:
â—† The investment cost of the two systems is roughly the same, and the cost of a RWS workstation and two Nd:YAG lasers is equivalent. It takes 24 seconds for the existing Nd:YAG system to weld a part. Cycle time analysis shows that RWS can weld 2 pieces in 26 seconds (almost twice the above result). Therefore, in actual production, RWS can achieve a full load productivity of one piece per 15.3 seconds.
◆ The maintenance cost of the RWS system is much lower. Rofin “slatted†CO2 lasers do not require any optics to be replaced, just replace the premixed cylinder every 8 months. The Nd:YAG laser requires frequent replacement of the pump lamp, which consumes a lot of power, and the protective cover of the focusing mirror must be replaced frequently.
◆ RWS is easy to program to achieve different weld shape and pendulum weld function, which provides greater flexibility to “customize†the weld pattern according to the part structure, improve the overall weld strength and part stiffness.
◆ RWS provides higher laser power and the ability to “jump†from one weld position to another (50ms) to another weld position. This greatly speeds up the production cycle and provides flexibility for future use of the system to weld other parts.
Based on this analysis, Autotek concluded that RWS is a cost-effective and highly flexible solution for the use of welded side impact bars.
Remote laser welding principle
In the late 1990s, high-power (minimum 3kW) CO2 lasers already provided high beam quality. As shown in Figure 2, the standard RWS includes a high-power (up to 6 kW) CO2 laser and a "remote" long focal length (typically 1000mm-1600mm) scanning system. The computer-driven motion system can perform a laser programming of the sheet metal component by performing a programming path like a robot or a CNC controller.
A remote-controlled laser welding system (RWS) was put into full production at Magna-Autotek, Pablo, Mexico. The RWS uses a high-power CO2 laser and a movable mirror to weld the sheet metal with the energy of the laser beam. The advent of CO2 lasers with high power and excellent beam quality enables the technology to be applied to processing areas of 1 m × 1 m or more. Compared with the traditional process, this method has the advantages of fast cycle and small footprint. Magna-Autotek is a "first-class" automotive supplier that uses remote-controlled laser welding technology on a part that supplies a car assembly plant.