FAQs

Is laser welding a proven welding technology ?

Yes, laser welding has been used by various large automotive manufacturers for many years.
In years past, handheld laser welding machine were only used in some high value added production industries due to their price.
In recent years, as the cost of low power residential lasers has dropped dramatically, the price of handheld laser welding machine has dropped by over 60%, so it is now turning out to be a very economical welding tool. More and more small and medium-sized companies are using it.

How is the power consumption of a laser welding machine calculated and can it be powered by a transformer?

Here we take a 1500W laser welding machine as an example:
When the 1500W laser generator is working at full power, its power consumption is 5500W.
If you turn down the power of the laser generator in the welding system, its power consumption will be reduced accordingly.
The power consumption of the water chiller is about 2000W, and it works intermittently.
With the full power of the 1500W laser generator and the water chiller working at the same time, the power consumption of the whole machine is 7500W.

If you use a transformer to power your laser welding machine, we recommend that you use a transformer with a load of at least three times the power consumption of the entire laser welding machine.
Only then will the transformer not overheat during continuous operation.
In addition, relatively high electric currents are generated at the moment of start-up of the water chiller and the laser generator, so using a transformer with a load of three times the power consumption of the laser welder is a relatively safe choice.

However, if conditions permit, we still recommend that you contact your local power department for a voltage conversion for your workplace rather than using a transformer.

Can a novice weld directly with a laser welding machine?

No, he/she cannot. Although the laser welding machine is easy to operate. However, we do not recommend a novice to work directly with a laser welding machine as this may damage your material.

The first thing a novice should have when using a laser welding machine is the ability to control their hands well, just like we learn to write, some people can learn quickly while others need more time. Secondly, he/she need to understand the basic principles of metal welding.

Generally speaking, if you are a craftsman, after a few hours or even less of practice, you will be able to work with a laser welder.
If you are proficient with a TIG welder, after a half hour or less of practice, you will be able to work with a laser welder.
When you become proficient, welding with a laser welding machine is 2-4 times faster than welding with a regular TIG welder.

What is the difference between laser welding machine with rust removal function (welding, cutting, rust removal) and without rust removal function (welding, cutting) in terms of welding?

There are two types of welding head gun. Single-mode-wobble welding head gun and double-wobble welding head gun.
In the single-mode-wobble welding head gun, there is one reflector motor that make the laser beam to wobble from one side to the other at a very high frequency.
In the dual-mode-wobble welding head gun, there are two reflector motor that could make the laser beam wobble in two-dimensional (such as O-shape, triangle, figure-of-eight).
Wobble makes the welding path wider, makes it easier to weld when there is a certain gap in the base material. It also allows the molten pool to absorb heat more evenly during the welding process, which facilitates heat dissipation from the molten pool.
Single-mode-wobble welding head guns are more widely used on handheld welding machines. While dual-mode-oscillate welding head guns are also widely used.
In conventional welding, the presence or absence of oscillation of the laser beam and the width of the oscillation make an great essential impact on the welding result. The shape of the oscillation could create different characters of the welding path, but they are not so huge differences.

Our welding machine with rust remove function is using the Single-mode-wobble welding head gun.
So the laser welding machine with rust removal function has the same same level of photoelectric conversion efficacy, laser strength, welding effect, and durability with laser welding machine without rust removal function.

The differences are:

We need to make trade-offs according to our needs.

How about the rust removal function?

There are two types of laser cleaners (laser rust removal machine): continuous laser cleaners and pulsed laser cleaners.

Continuous laser cleaning machine is using laser to clean the dirt on the metal surface continuously,it is poweful causes very slightly damage to the base material (much less than polishing and chemical methods). However, during the rust removal process, it will heat up the base material. So it is suitable for  suitable for removing rust and paint in large area for heat resistant workpieces. Generally at 1500W, 2000W power.

Pulse laser cleaning machine is the use of pulse laser cleaning metal surface dirt, It does not accumulate a lot of heat on the surface of the workpiece, and the damage to the base material is almost 0. No heat-induced deformation of the base material occurs during the rust removal process. So it is more suitable for precision cleaning and small workpiece cleaning. Generally at 100W 200W 300W power.

The price of continuous laser cleaning machine is much lower than pulsed laser cleaning machine, so many component processing factories will choose continuous laser cleaning machines for rust removal, because they can also meet the requirements.

The rust removal function of the 3 in 1 welding machine is the same with continuous laser cleanrs, the difference is the scan width of the 3 in 1 welding machine is 80mm.   However，it costs a little more to buy a continuous laser cleanrs than a laser welding machine, so even if it's only half as wide. If you just need to use the cleaning function(rust removal function) occasionally, it's more than enough and cost-effective.

To implement the rust removal function, you need to replace a focusing lens on the laser welding head gun and then switch to the Clean Mode in the system. The whole process is easy to operate and can be completed in a few minutes.
Laser rust removal uses laser energy to hit the rust layer off the surface of the substrate material.
Since the laser hits the substrate material in an oscillating trajectory, it leaves a slightly light path trace on the surface of the substrate material， but it causes almost no wear and tear on the non-rusting base material.
Therefore, it an be used for removing rust from mechanical parts such as templates, steel structures, steel, nuts and mechanical housings. It cannot be used for the descaling of the interior of precision instruments.