Process Date: February 2000


This part was welded with a Synrad 240W laser - 15% duty cycle, 20"/ minute.

The resulting weld width is 250mm.
A Synrad 240-watt CO2 laser was used for butt-welding 0.0035" stainless steel.  When welding thin metals, there are two keys to success:  firmly fixturing the two edges together, and minimizing part distortion. The fine control of laser energy input highlights the welding capability of the Synrad sealed CO2 laser, in an area where solid state lasers have traditionally been dominant. The naturally high peak powers of Nd:YAG lasers have a tendency to remove material, which leads to a reduced processing window. In addition, Nd: YAG lasers produce relatively slow weld speeds as compared to the CO₂ laser.

Excellent results were achieved in our Applications Facility using a Synrad  Evolution 240 (60-2) CO2 laser. This laser provides sufficient average energy into the joint for welding, but low enough peak power density that ablation or spatter problems are avoided.

The thermal distortion of the part is controlled by using the laser in a pulsed mode with a low duty cycle. This minimizes part heating and therefore, the compressive and tensile forces that produce part deformation.