APPARATUS FOR MAKING AN AUTOMOTIVE HEADLIGHT AND METHOD OF SIMULTANEOUS LASER WELDING OF AN AUTOMOTIVE HEADLIGHT

摘要

A welding apparatus (40) for making an automotive light (4) comprising: - locking means (52, 56) of a container body (8) and of a lenticular body (24) to be welded to each other, the container body (8) having a first perimetral profile (20) and the lenticular body (24) having a second perimetral profile (28) which, placed in contact with each other, define a welding interface (36) to be welded by means of said apparatus, - a laser emitting device or laser source emitting a laser beam, - a plurality of fibres (44) which receive portions of the laser beam from the laser emitting device and direct them towards the welding interface (36) through the lenticular body (24), wherein the container body (8) acts as an absorbing element towards the light beam and the lenticular body (24) acts as a transmissive element of the light beam, - light guides (60,60',60") for changing the divergence of the portions of laser beams outgoing from the fibres (44), so as to collimate them overall along relative optical axes (X-X), - wherein the light guides (60, 60', 60") comprise an inlet (64) which receives from the fibres the laser beam produced by the laser emitting device and an outlet (68) which propagates/transmits said laser beam collimated by said guides. Advantageously, the apparatus (40) comprises light guide (60', 60") having respective free ends (72', 72'') mechanically separated from each other, wherein said light guide means (60', 60") are configured so as to direct collimated light beams on adjacent and locally continuous portions of welding interface (36) so as to obtain a homogeneous and uniform distribution of the light beams along the welding interface (36).