Laser application in the industry

1. Application of laser in automobile industry

Safety, comfort, energy saving and environmental protection has been used as the theme of the development of the world automobile industry, as one of the main processing methods in modern automobile production laser technology, its development is mainly around the theme of combining with the professional characteristic of the.

The automotive industry is one of the most widely used fields of laser processing. According to statistics, in Europe and the United States industrial developed countries, 50%-70% parts are laser processing to complete. Especially in recent years, it has developed rapidly. In 1998, there were about more than 3000 laser processing machines used in the automotive industry in the world, and hundreds of laser processing machines were put into use each year. There are also thousands of small power lasers that are used in the automotive industry for testing and rapid prototyping.

In the automotive industry, laser processing is usually based on cutting. Laser beam cutting with high power CO2 laser, in order to improve the cutting speed and cutting quality, the beam at the exit of CO2 laser cutting machine are generally equipped with nozzle, so that in the cutting process and blowing gas. Because of the light reflectivity of the metal surface for a wavelength of 10.6 m were high in the cutting of metal workpiece often blowing oxygen or compressed air, to improve the cutting efficiency; and in the cutting of flammable materials when blowing nitrogen and other inert gas to prevent combustion.

Cutting width of laser cutting is generally less than 0.5mm, but there are about lmm. It is related to the material and thickness of the workpiece, the power of the laser beam, the focal length and focal position, the diameter of the laser beam, the pressure and the flow rate of the blowing gas, and so on. In the car and small batch production are widely used in 3D laser beam cutting machine, cutting processing of ordinary aluminium and stainless steel sheet, strip, application of laser processing, the high-speed cutting speed has reached 10m / min, not only greatly shorten the production preparation cycle, and to realize the flexibility of workshop production, processing area decreased half. Because of its high processing efficiency, processing costs are reduced by 50% compared to mechanical processing. There are reports that two shifts are held daily. The period of depreciation can be completed in about 2 years.

Laser welding has become a standard process in the automobile industry. The laser is used for the welding of the body panel, and the metal plates with different thickness and coating with different surface can be welded together and then pressed, so that the panel structure can reach the most reasonable metal combination. Laser welding speed of about 4.5m/min, and very little deformation, eliminating the need for two processing.

Laser welding accelerates the process of stamping parts instead of forging parts. Laser welding can reduce the lap width and some strengthening components, and can also compress the volume of the body structure itself. In this case, the weight of the body can be reduced by 56kg. Laser welding is used to weld the roof housing and frame. The welding of the transmission converter cover plate is controlled by CNC. Its cycle time is about 16 seconds, the actual welding time is only 3 seconds, and it can run continuously for 24 hours a day.

With the emergence of high power output of CO2 laser, the metal surface treatment technology has made great progress. Among them, laser coating, laser alloying, laser polishing, laser shock hardening and so on are widely used. Laser surface treatment has been widely used in the manufacture of automobile engine seats, roof housings and frames.

In the production of auto parts, such as steel sleeve, crankshaft, piston ring and gear, heat treatment, after laser heat treatment, no further processing, can be directly sent to the assembly line installation.

Laser machining, computer numerical control and flexible manufacturing technology have been widely used in the manufacture of automotive dies. Laser cutting, laser surface treatment, laser heat treatment and other processing technology, so that the original mold cycle shortened from 28 weeks to 4-6 weeks, to meet the needs of rapid car modification.

As the main technique for measuring laser measurement in the automotive industry, it can be compared with models of parts, after the repair or modification of parts compared with the original model, or changes in the design of components quickly modify the cutting tool or die. In the production of auto parts, laser measurement can quickly and accurately test whether the size of each finished component is exactly the same as the size of the design. Moreover, a laser measuring instrument can convert a component or a physical model into a digital file at the most rapid speed. This document can be processed in various ways and compared with other documents.

Laser rapid prototyping technology is at the beginning of 90s, came into being in the rapid development of computer technology, laser, polymer materials, CAD / CAM, precision machinery etc., and soon to be used in the automobile industry, it broke through the traditional mode of the manufacturing industry, has become the most attractive technology.

The use of laser rapid prototyping system: carbon dioxide gas or argon gas laser, three-dimensional objects using computer complex into a two-dimensional layer, then use the idea of thermoplastic powder or adhesive sheet of paper substrate by sintering, point and line structure parts (surface layer), and then step by step molding. Laser rapid prototyping technology will enable new products to be put on the market as early as possible, greatly improving the automobile production enterprises' market application ability and product competition ability.