NEW LASER PROCESSES FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - INVESTIGATION AND STORAGE OF LASER WELDING AND LASER BRAZING PARAMETERS INTO THE Join-NET ? GLOBAL DATABASE

摘要

Laser welding of automotive car bodies is today looked upon as a mature production technology used among car manufacturers all around the world. Laser welded roof joints are more or less State-of-the-Art in the business ever since it was first introduced in the late 1980’s on GM, BMW and Volvo models. However, in an increasingly stronger competition new assembly processes have to be introduced in order to further improve product properties. Two methods which lately have received a lot of attention are hybrid laser welding and laser brazing. These laser processes are proven to overcome previous laser welding problems such as process instability, gap bridging ability and high investment costs. Another crucial thing for the automotive industry is to reduce the development time when new models are to be launch. In order to be able to do so, optimized welding/brazing parameters, as well as static and fatigue strength of such welds, applied to different materials combinations, are therefore recorded during research and pre-study phases. The information has to be easily accessible for various users, like design and manufacturing engineers as well as simulation experts and plant personnel, something which has lead to the creation of the Volvo global database Join-NET ?. This paper will review the potential of laser hybrid welding and laser brazing applications in automotive body assembly, as well as some results from experimental testing. As a partly online presentation, it will also be possible to guide through some of the menus and content in the laser modules of the Join-NET ? database.