Smart바카라 오토+ Fills the Gaps in Production 바카라 오토ing

Production automation expert teamtechnik supplies everything from manual through fully automatic turnkey systems for manufacturing, assembly, and testing. Their expertise spans a huge range of technologies, including part handling, various testing methods, and joining processes, mainly for the e-mobility industry. In 2019, they were asked to develop a production 바카라 오토ing system by a manufacturer of battery packs for handheld power tools.

In particular, teamtechnik was tasked with providing automated solutions for 바카라 오토ing 11 different joints. These included joining a variety of materials together. Because they didn’t have extensive in-house expertise in laser 바카라 오토ing, and so many processes had to be developed in short order, they reached out to바카라 오토 Labsto assist them.

A smarter way to 바카라 오토

The 바카라 오토 team was supplied with material samples. A series of tests readily demonstrated that all these processes could be successfully accomplished with theCoherent Smart바카라 오토+ processing head, coupled with a 1 kW, single-mode fiber 바카라 오토 (theHighLight FL1000CSM).

Smart바카라 오토+ is a specialized 바카라 오토ing tool that incorporates an advanced form of beam shaping, including a wide variety of oscillation patterns. It also enables precise control of delivered laser energy during the 바카라 오토 process. Together this allows the width, depth, and penetration profile of the 바카라 오토 seam to be carefully managed. It’s particularly useful for joining heat-sensitive materials and dissimilar material combinations, such as copper to aluminum or steel. Also, it can 바카라 오토 highly reflective or volatile materials with less spatter, porosity, and cracking.

Difficult materials

Smart바카라 오토+ even enables processing of “difficult” materials – that is, those that aren’t traditionally compatible with laser 바카라 오토ing. Some of the materials utilized in the battery pack construction fell into this category.

For example, one 바카라 오토 requires joining a 0.5 mm thick piece of zinc-coated copper to a 1.0 mm thickness of nickel-coated copper. The low melting point of zinc has presented problems for laser 바카라 오토ing in the past. In particular, it bubbles chaotically when brought to the temperature necessary to melt copper. This results in voids and porosity in the finished 바카라 오토 seam, as well as a substantial amount of spatter.

This part required 바카라 오토s on both ends. One end was flat, and the other end had a 90° bend. These conditions were different enough that two separate sets of parameters had to be developed to optimize each 바카라 오토. Plus, there is a plastic piece embedded in the part that must not be heated during 바카라 오토ing.

The ability to adjust the exact shape of the 바카라 오토 using Smart바카라 오토+ was very useful here. It allowed creation of a joint which was large enough to provide the required level of electrical connection and mechanical strength without straying too close to the plastic part. While similar 바카라 오토 paths are used on each side of the part, the directions they are applied in are different. The development teams in teamtechnik Poland and Coherent also found that for one of the 바카라 오토s, optimum 바카라 오토 results were obtained with a small gap between the parts.

For both 바카라 오토s, a key part of the solution was dynamic power modulation. This provides the ability to stabilize the melt pool during 바카라 오토ing and eliminate porosity. It also substantially reduces spatter.

Handling process variability

Another of the 바카라 오토s involved joining two 0.3 mm thick pieces of SIGMA_CLAD® together. SIGMA_CLADis a composite material specifically designed for making electrical connections in Li-Ion batteries in packs. It’s a five-layer sandwich consisting of Ni|stainless steel|Cu|stainless steel|Ni. This combination delivers more desirable properties than any individual metal. Specifically, the copper provides excellent electrical and thermal conductivity (for heat dissipation), while the stainless steel layers make the material easier to 바카라 오토 and also increase 바카라 오토 joint strength. The outer nickel layers facilitate soldering and lend good corrosion resistance.

Because SIGMA_CLADis specifically designed for compatibility with laser 바카라 오토ing, neither the teamtechnik nor Coherent development teams expected that this join would represent much of a challenge. But, in practice, they found that material thickness variations, individual layer thickness variations, and low overall part dimensional tolerances created process deviations and inconsistent fit up. Testing determined that fixturing would be necessary to keep any gap between the two parts to less than 0.05 mm in order to achieve a 100% success rate for the 바카라 오토s.

The overall 바카라 오토 in this case is 1 mm x 2.5 mm. The focused laser beam is much smaller than this, so the Smart바카라 오토+ traces the beam back and forth several times while stepping slightly in the perpendicular direction between each scan to cover the entire area. Furthermore, testing showed that it was necessary to modulate the laser while moving, otherwise there was excessive spatter at the ends of the scan.

Some of the processes changed even after the equipment was installed and commiss바카라 오토ed in the end user’s factory. The Coherent applicat바카라 오토s group continued to provide support to respond to this.

For example, in one 바카라 오토 0.3 mm thick SIGMA_CLADis joined to 1.0 mm thick nickel-coated copper. The problem here didn’t arise until after the equipment had been installed and operated successfully by the end user for two years. Then the materials supplier changed their formulat바카라 오토, and also introduced issues with the cleanliness of the copper. This resulted in a substantial amount of spatter using the process recipe which they had originally employed without difficulties.

The flexibility of theSmart바카라 오토+proved particularly valuable in this case. In particular, the ability to easily vary the 바카라 오토 parameters through software control without making any changes to the hardware of fixturing. A new cycle of testing at Coherent established that implementing laser power modulation in this process would solve the problem.

Partnering for success

Working with the Coherent development team allowed teamtechnik to concentrate on what they know best – namely automation. “We needed a partner to get all these laser 바카라 오토ing processes developed within the time and cost constraints we had from our customer,” notes Maciej Zaborowski, 바카라 오토ing Technology Specialist, teamtechnik POLAND. “In particular we wanted to find someone who has the expertise and facilities to test the materials and determine if they could all be laser 바카라 오토ed, and then develop specific process recipes that would work in production.”

“Coherent delivered on all these points. Plus, our cooperat바카라 오토 with them didn’t end after this initial process development. They ’ve continued supporting us as changes in materials created product바카라 오토 variances in processes that had been working well up to then. There was no other laser vendor we could find who would take on this level of process responsibility.”

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