PRECISION LASER WELDING SERVICES
Manufacturing technology is constantly evolving and each project has its own unique set of challenges and requirements. You need to know when laser welding services are the better, more cost effective answer and who will be your best provider.
Ultimately, what’s going to make your project a success?
When to choose laser welding services over traditional methods.
Precise welds with narrow beads
Laser welding can produce bead widths of .005” to .045” and weld penetration from .005” through .070”. This flexibility allows us to weld very small parts and very thin materials.
PRECISION LASER WELDING IS:
- Highly programmable, eliminating variations due to human technique.
- Higher quality and consistency in a production environment.
- Best option for small, delicate or precision welding projects.
Low Heat Input and Less Distortion
Laser welding is a highly-controllable process. We can set the width of the weld spot, the depth of penetration, the intensity of heat, and the path and speed of the part.
LASER WELDING OVERCOMES THESE CHALLENGES:
- Thinner, more delicate projects that can’t withstand traditional welding techniques
– Very low heat input and no electrical discharge for ESD sensitive parts. - Welding certain dissimilar metals.
- List of materials that qualify for laser welding.
- Hermetic welds qualified by helium leak testing.
INACCESSIBLE WELD SURFACE
Laser welding has made the impossible possible. Only the laser head needs to have a clear line of sight to the weld area vs arc welding, which can’t be done in tight spaces.
LASER WELDING CAN DO WHAT CONVENTIONAL WELDING CAN’T:
- Hard to reach areas within complex shapes.
- Extremely small parts can be welded.
- Locational tolerances as little as ±.002 inches.
Why work with Rache Corporation?
When precision is imperative, our laser welding services are the way to go.
“The new welds are GREAT and after running a helium leak test EVERYTHING CHECKED OUT. The team did an amazing job welding our parts. Rache Corporation came up with a unique welding profile for our parts that resulted in great welds.”
– Amanda R, Purchasing
Here's One Of Our Coolest Laser Welding Projects!
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.
Laser Welding In Mission Critical Applications
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.
Thin Kovar® Laser Welding Microwave Packaging
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:
- Evaluation of your package and plating material options
- Decide on your joint type: butt, lap or fillet
- Investigate Final Testing and Potential Rework issues
- 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)
Laser Welding Materials Specifications List
Laser Welding Materials
- Stainless Steels
- Carbon Steels
- Titanium
- Kovar
- Beryllium Copper
- Monel
- Molybdenum
- Inconel 600 / 625
- Platinum to Gold Plated Nickel
- Nitinol
- Niobium
- Hastelloy
- Aluminum: 3003,4043/4047/2029 to 6061 housing
- Copper-Tungsten
- Copper-Nickel
- Nickel-Chromium
- Zirconium