LASER WELDING SERVICES

Hermetic Laser Welding of Aeronautic Camera Housing

Rache Corporation provides laser hermetic sealing services to customers in the medical, aerospace, electronics, defense and automotive industries. 

For this project, a camera housing was hermetically sealed to customer specifications via laser welding for use in a surveillance satellite. The satellite was used to search Afghanistan for terror suspects, and had to be hermetically sealed to ensure proper camera operation after launch. 

This hermetic welding process ensures complete protection against any penetration by moisture and foreign contaminants that could damage the camera equipment.

The housing measures approximately 0.50 inches in diameter with tolerances of ±.002″. After sealing, the housing was helium leak tested with our Varian Helium Leak Detector to ensure a thorough seal. 

This hermetically sealed camera housing was completed and leak tested in one day.

Do you use threaded fasteners for critical applications that must not come loose?

Threaded items used in aerospace, medical and high technology applications consist of fasteners where loosening could result in loss or serious damage.

Laser staking is a great solution to avoid fastener loosening & the use of chemical adhesives.

If desired, the fastener can be removed at a later time.

The process involves laser welding small sections of the fastener. The length of the bead determines the torque required to overcome the stake & remove the fastener.

Most metals can be laser staked. Dissimilar metals need to be tested for torque requirements before production begins.

Here’s a great example:

Looking to Increase Motor Longevity And Gear Performance?

Have you considered welding the pinion gear to the shaft? For applications where the attachment of the pinion gear to the motor shaft is critical, send Rache your parts and we will laser weld the gear to the shaft.

The weld eliminates the need to use set screws or adhesives and creates a permanent bond that won’t loosen over time.

Laser Welded Kovar®

Over 30 years ago, Rache Corporation developed a laser process that produces thin-metal shapes at a lower cost than conventional machining methods and cutting Kovar® is one of our specialties. Our electronic / microwave customers are pleased that they can now utilize this laser cutting option especially in the critical delivery pre-production prototype phase.

A proven method of joining Kovar and stainless-steel alloys together is by laser welding. Changing the bead width, pulse energy and pulse duration is required to produce a strong laser weld. Note that there is a linear relationship between laser pulse energy or peak power density and pulse duration with laser spot weld dimensions (both laser spot weld width and penetration depth).

Optimization of both the pulse peak power and pulse duration yields a suitable aspect ratio (laser spot width to penetration depth). This will then achieve the desired welds with suitable penetration depth and small spot width. 

This is to reduce the heat affected zone (HAZ). To achieve quality assurance requirements, please address:

1. Evaluation of your package and plating material options
2. Decide on your joint type: butt, lap or fillet
3. Investigate Final Testing and Potential Rework issues
4. Hermetic Seal Testing methods for example as defined in MIL-STD-750 E, Test Method 1071.9 “Hermetic Seal” and MIL-STD-883H, Test Method 1014.13 “Seal” (Equivalent standard leak rates (atm cc/s air) per volume)