Beam shaping systems from Limo have been used to boost the efficiency of plastics welding processes significantly, and have been used by a Tier 1 parts manufacturer in the automotive industry. Conventional quasi-simultaneous welding with scanner can be replaced by a fully simultaneous welding process.
A homogeneous beam profile, which is adapted to the customised seam geometry (e.g. a line), is used instead of a point-shaped laser beam. The most important advantage is that instead of time-consuming positioning of the laser beam at the welding points and subsequent scanning of the complete seam, the whole process is performed in one step with a single short-time laser radiation. The results are increased processing speed and throughput. Furthermore, the welding process is more error-free, because of a bigger process window and a stable process control.
Also the quality of the welding is improved: The welding seam is non-porous and bubble-free with constant width. Destructive tests of the work pieces show a continuously high stability of the welding seam along the whole contour.
Reduced investment costs compared to scanner-based systems for quasi-simultaneous welding provide additional benefits.
