Laser welding At Carr's Goes Large

Carr’s installed a new laser welding system in November 2003, with more power and a bigger job capacity. The Trumpf HP124 system has 50% more power than Carr’s other systems, allowing deeper penetration welds and aluminium components to be welded more easily.

Carr’s can handle up to 6 tons and will take on welding and hand dressing / polishing on tools, to damaged areas and even weld porosity problems on aluminium, where Tig would leave a witness.

The laser system from Trumpf was installed before Christmas at Carr’s and not only can it take much larger jobs, but also has far more power. This allows aluminium and copper alloys to be welded, as they require more power than steel. The problem with aluminium is the high level of reflection that occurs when welding, as the power easily bounces off the surface to be welded when molten. Higher power means the ideal welding conditions can still be met at acute angles where normally the power reduction would be such that it could not be welded.

Copper alloys, as with Aluminium, need a lot more heat to weld them, so with conventional techniques, the process is very hot and the chances of distortion is high. The laser welds copper easily, as the beam’s energy density is so much more intense, up-to 10 times.

This copper mask gets damaged on the edges. Carr’s laser weld the damage and machine the diameter to size.

Tooling might get cheaper to buy, but the tolerances don’t get any easier to keep.

This foreign made tool was wrong on delivery, so Carr’s laser welded some upstanding features, which were too small when moulded. When electrodes for sparking the tool are not available, neat minimal weld deposits are essential to make small modifications. When electrodes for sparking the tool are not available.

Good bye

Bob Barr has left the company after 10 years hard work. Good luck Bob, and we wish him well in his new endeavours.

Production Welding at Carr’s.

Carr’s will laser weld small assemblies together as a production job, if the volume is small. A typical job of a few 100 parts can be welded, so the customer takes the opportunity of a single set up and hence the piece price, comes down substantially. Carr’s now have regular small batches of medical instruments, circular springs, valve assemblies, Philips Hyper-vision bulbs and heat / pressure sensors. All these are welded on our lasers.

The photo right jig holds a small assembly in place for laser welding the parts together. The jig is a precision engineered part and will keep the dimensions in tolerance on the assembly.