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Shimadzu Review 79[3・4] (2022)
Abstract
Due to the rapid increase in demand for material processing applications resulting from the expanding popularity of various electric vehicles (xEV), we developed a high power blue diode laser as a light source for processing pure copper materials. With an output of 500 W per laser, we also developed a combiner that can combine the output from multiple fibers into a single fiber to achieve a total output of 1.5 kW per fiber. This article describes examples of using that laser to weld 1.8 mm diameter copper wire and apply a copper powder coating to verify the practical utility of using the high power blue diode laser as a light source for metal processing. In addition, Shimadzu analytical and measuring instruments were used to verify the processing quality of the samples. That showed that an X-ray CT system can measure voids inside welds nondestructively and an electron probe microanalyzer can be used to precisely analyze the dilution of base and weld metals in laser coatings. In the future, it is expected that process informatics will be used with the increasing accumulation of analytical results data to predict optimal processing conditions based on the material characteristics and shape of samples.
Advanced Analysis Unit, Technology Research Laboratory, Shimadzu Corporation, Kanagawa, Japan
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