Application trend of high-power fiber laser in shipbuilding industry

Fiber lasers have been a hot spot in the laser field in recent years. In the processing field, fiber lasers have a tendency to rapidly replace traditional YAG and CO2 lasers. It is generally believed that high-power fiber lasers will be the third generation of advanced industrial processing lasers.　　 The continuous output power of the current commercial fiber lasers has risen to the order of several kilowatts, to the order of 10,000 watts. Compared with general lasers, fiber lasers have many unique advantages, such as good beam quality; small size, light weight, and maintenance-free; wind cooling, simple and easy to operate; low operating cost, can be used in industrial environments; long life, The processing precision is high, the speed is fast; the electric energy conversion efficiency is high, and it can realize intelligent, automated, and flexible operation. Based on the above advantages, its application fields have been extended to the laser cutting and laser welding of metal and non-metal materials such as automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding and aviation manufacturing.　　 In June 2010, IPG announced that its 10KW fiber laser was successfully used in hybrid welding in shipbuilding. At that time, Dr. Gu Bo said: When IPG high-power fiber lasers are widely used in shipbuilding plants, they will save 30% of energy consumption. This will be a technological revolution and will promote the continuous improvement of shipbuilding technology.　　 Japan’s Nagasaki Shipyard has obtained permission from the Japan Maritime Association and Lloyd’s Register of Shipping to apply fiber laser-arc hybrid welding to shipbuilding for the first time. Due to the small heat-affected zone of the fiber laser, it can significantly reduce the thermal deformation of the workpiece, improve the appearance of the weld, and also reduce the cost of ship construction, and the economic benefit is significantly improved. Due to the advantages of fiber laser welding for high-efficiency deep penetration welding (compared to ordinary arc welding, the penetration depth can reach deeper), it is being widely used, especially in the thin-sheet processing industries such as automobiles. In the shipbuilding industry, not only high-precision welding is required, but most of the materials used are thick plates. Therefore, combining the advantages of fiber laser and arc, a welding method that combines fiber laser welding and easy-to-use traditional arc welding is produced- -Fiber laser-arc hybrid welding method.　　 Fiber laser-arc hybrid welding method is an automatic welding method that uses arc first and laser welding. It concentrates energy on one point for welding to reduce the total heat injection, thereby reducing the thermal deformation of the welding workpiece. Applying it in the shipbuilding industry can improve the manufacturing accuracy of the hull, reduce some auxiliary processing such as on-site cutting adjustment, deformation correction, etc. It also helps to improve the appearance of the product, improve the quality, and reduce the construction cost. Fiber laser-arc hybrid welding ensures the levelness, toughness and strength of the welded joint, thereby ensuring its wider application in the shipbuilding industry in terms of precise management and construction skills. (The above are edited and compiled from the network for the tube laser cutting machine, see www.gnlaser.com for details)