Laser welding?

Chip Sylverne

Chip Sylverne

Final Approach
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Quit with the negative waves, man.
I've seen a couple short demo vids. It looks like a hand held torch, similar to a conventional MIG, connected to a power unit via fiber optics. Does anyone have any experience using one? does it require gas shielding? Any special material prep? I would think it would have a smaller heat affected zone, less warpage, and be less likely for welds to crack later on in thin sheet or pipe, like exhausts and such. And no sparks!

Probably absurdly expensive, but no doubt will get cheaper over time.
 
I've never seen a hand-held laser welding torch. And you'd need shielding gas, for sure. Lasers are hideously inefficient; if one didn't need the tiny heat zone, it would likely be a waste of time.
I don't get sparks when I TIG weld, and it's relatively inexpensive.
 
Make sure you have the correct safety glasses, whatever those might be.
<-- do not look at laser light with remaining eye ;)
 
FYI the latest EAA Sport Aviation has an article on aircraft welding and the author strongly prefers gas welding.
 
I used to be the the weld inspector at Pratt & Whitney's government research lab in West Palm Beach and I certainly saw lots of different types of exotic welding. Including laser welding but that was a long time ago. They also used to do plasma flame spray and that was pretty cool.
 
Hmm, I might be thinking of electron beam welding because I remember it was done in high vacuum.
 
If you want to see a hand held laser in action, there's a bunch posted on YouTube. Looks fast, and great for thin material, no warpage. I would think you'd get real precise heat control. That would be great for welding aluminum.
 
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