Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWSWeight reduction in the automobile an advantage for manufacturer and customer - Fraunhofer IWS Dresden at LASER World of PHOTONICS in Munich 2009
Cars with low fuel consumption are presently in great demand. Weight reduction is one efficient pos-sibility to reduce the fuel consumption. Manufactures and the environment benefit from the material savings. The scientists of the IWS have developed a welding technology, which enable new design possibilities for the light weight construction.
High-strength, stiff light weight constructions can cost-efficiently be produced by a combination of force and form closure. This technology allows the laser welding of bar-groove connections without fillers with high feed rates and gaps of 0.3 mm.
The sheets to-be-welded are provided with bars and grooves, which enable an easy mounting and form closure of the construction. Subsequently, the contours are welded with a laser beam. The gap is bridged by oscillating the laser beam cross-wise to the feed direction. The overlapping material of the bar sheet is used for the filling of the gap.
This technology has hitherto been demonstrated for auto body sheets up to 0.8 mm, for galvanized sheets and 1 mm aluminum sheets. We will be highly pleased to discuss this new technology with interested trade-show visitors.
You are cordially invited to visit us at the Fraunhofer Pavilion Production Technology (hall 2, booth 350) at the Laser Tradeshow 2009.