Advanced Laser Technology: A Sharp Tool to Improve the Level of Automotive Manufacturing

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In recent years, with the continuous progress of science and technology, advanced manufacturing technology represented by laser technology is constantly promoting the replacement and innovation breakthrough of automobile manufacturing industry, and its application in automobile processing is becoming more and more extensive.

Compared with traditional manufacturing technology, laser technology is outstanding in cutting, welding, marking, and surface treatment due to its outstanding advantages such as non-contact processing, high precision, high flexibility, high efficiency, high automation and adaptability. In this paper, the current situation and trend of automobile panel laser high-speed blanking, body-in-white laser on-line welding and automobile parts welding in automobile application are mainly introduced, aiming at the rapid development and diversification of automobile varieties and the transformation of automobile panel demand from scale to customized production.

High-speed laser cutting blanking of automobile panel

As we all know, the key development trend of laser cutting in the future mainly includes high precision, high speed, high power, large thickness, wide area, three-dimensional cutting and special material cutting.At present, in the field of laser cutting, optical fiber laser cutting highlights a series of advantages: continuous improvement of power, continuous increase of the thickness of plates processed, and cutting speed is getting faster and faster (up to 100m/min), which not only greatly shortens the production preparation period, but also makes the workshop production highly flexible and reduces the processing area by half.Laser processing costs are reduced by 50% compared with traditional machining methods.

Nowadays, the demand for automobile panel is becoming more and more strong. The rapid development of automobile industry also demands more and more professional automobile panel blanking lines. The demand for automobile panel needs to be converted from scale production to customized production.The key is to use laser technology to process automobile panels.

If the existing machining methods are adopted, the price of single equipment is about 70 million yuan, the cost of opening a single set of dies is about 2.2 million yuan, and the time of opening the dies is about 1-2 months.At the same time, there is a design challenge: complex shapes are difficult to shape.

With the continuous development of high-performance optical fiber technology, the new automobile panel blanking production line has been promoted continuously.

On-line welding of body-in-white

Welding of the body-in-white is regarded as an important link in the production process of automobiles. The welding quality of the body-in-white is directly related to the quality and service life of the whole vehicle.Due to the advantages of non-contact processing, high energy density, small deformation, narrow heat-affected zone, high welding speed, easy to realize automatic control and no subsequent processing, laser welding of body-in-white greatly improves the vehicle manufacturing efficiency and reduces the production cost compared with traditional welding methods.

The welding system for the top of the car panel can complete 1.4 m length welding in 13 seconds.When flexible mixing production is carried out for different models, the automatic switching time of production line models is less than 40 seconds.Another example is the production line of body welding, which consists of 2 kinds of floor fixtures, 1 set of body transmission system, 1 set of body lifting device, 8 spot-welding robots, 16 sets of gripper gripper gripper gripper gripper fixtures and 16 positioning locking devices.In addition, the head laser welding line consists of two robotic units, a fiber laser, a wire feeder, a welding joint, a laser shield and floor fixtures.Quick changeover device is included between the top clamp and the robot, which can quickly switch the tooling of multiple models.

From the point of view of welding process research, the following areas need to be strengthened continuously: stability control of welding process, defect control of weld, shape and structure control of weld, complex structure welding process control and new laser welding technology.

Laser Welding of Automotive Parts

In addition to body-in-white welding and tailor-welded automotive panels, laser welding also plays an important role in the processing of automotive parts.Undoubtedly, laser welding technology has become one of the most advanced automobile manufacturing processes. In the developed western industrial countries, more than 60% of automobile parts are processed by laser welding technology, such as airbag, automobile seat angle adjuster, seat slide, spare compartment, etc.Laser technology can be found in the manufacture of a wide range of automotive parts, such as gears and transmissions.At the same time, laser welding shows its advantages in many aspects such as efficiency, safety, strength, environmental protection and flexible machining of automotive parts.Laser welding technology can greatly improve the overall performance of automobile parts and further improve the quality of the whole vehicle.

As an important part of the vehicle, airbag refers to a device which expands the airbag to protect the occupants before a second collision occurs.An airbag explosion is controlled by a gas generator, a key component in the airbag. During the explosion, a large number of gases are generated, resulting in an explosion.In view of this, the sealing requirement of the inner liner of airbag is very high, and it is necessary to avoid overheating during the processing of inner liner, thus distinguishing the laser welding process.In this field, Huagong laser can provide suitable welding technology, its core advantages include large penetration of weld, 2-3mm, high welding strength and small welding deformation;High degree of welding automation and welding accuracy;Laser welding airbag is a non-contact process without welding aids.In addition, laser welding eliminates the need for electrodes or fillers, thereby creating an impurity-free and pollution-free weld.

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