OCT for Industrial Laser Welding

Together with the industrialization of OCT for laser welding, the development of industrial solutions for sequential online pre-, in- and post-process control with OCT are ongoing. An essential development attempt is a use the OCT keyhole depth data for closed-loop laser power control to keep the weld depth constant.
All the potential merits of OCT and the three-dimensional nature of the OCT data makes OCT in many respects superior to the traditional technologies. It empowers high productive and flexible production line layouts with increased volume of produced components. OCT makes welding in series production faster, more accurate, and thus more cost-effective than currently achievable with today’s conventional sensor technology.

Journal of Japan Laser Processing Society, Vol. 28, No. 2, June 2021, p. 19

For a better world: OCT unlocks real-time quality control during oscillation welding

Compared to conventional laser welding with a static focal spot, welding with an oscillating laser beam results in better weld quality. However, to ensure the broad industrial application of this technique, an easy-to-handle integrated system for precise seam tracking and quality monitoring is required. OCT can be applied to a welding process with an oscillating laser beam to influence the process by improving control of the weld position, depth and geometry. This is done by compensating the oscillating laser movements. Hence, laser welding of power storage and electric engine components using an oscillating beam can become more robust using a highly dynamic OCT system. OCT enables fast, precise and omnidirectional online detection of varying seam joint location, focal position, weld penetration depth, as well as weld faults.

Read more: Full text (website version)

Shortened print version:

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Allows Sophisticated Trajectories while Producing High-Quality Laser Welds

Better-quality welds, reduced cost per part, and shorter cycle times are  industrial  goals  that  can  be achieved by using highly focused laser  light.  Precise  and  reliable dynamic  sensing  technology  is required to operate the automated processing laser without direct human manipulation to accomplish safety requirements.
Today, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has gained acceptance as a measurement technique with high precision and reproducibility. OCT as applied to laser welding has already made a step beyond laboratory use, being widely adapted to various laser heads in different branches of the joining industry. OCT brings laser welding to its proper target, ensuring high-quality welds and enabling the reduction of cycle times during welding along sophisticated trajectories or during positioning at challenging joints or low-dimensional e-mobility elements. OCT is beneficial for online omnidirectional seam tracking, exact nondestructive measurement of keyhole depth, and identification of faults and defects at the resulting seam.

Read more: Full text

© 2019 Industrial Laser Solutions / Endeavor.  All Rights Reserved.