We’re taking an in-depth look at the AL-CROSS: a mobile fiber laser welding system.

The AL-CROSS is powerful, as 450 W constant laser power is waiting for use. Welding is either pulsed or in CW mode. The welding behavior can be influenced via integrated pulse shapes. Parameters are set either via the color display or via the multifunction footswitch or the new AL-DRIVE control unit.

Its display is tilt-able (orientable) in order to always have an optimal view and an integrated keyboard is within easy reach of the operator.

The fiber laser is mobile thanks to its easily movable wheels. It fits through standard doors and with its transport height of 1.25 m (display can be tilted) into every small van with a loading height of at least 1.40 m. And the best way to experience the mobility of the arm, the lenses and the laser head is to try it out!

Its housing is robust with sturdy aluminum handles that provide shock protection for edges and housing and supports the easy movement of the system. There are integrated eyelets for loading and stowing, plus a hook for a winch.

Generous storage areas make this one of the most user-oriented welders, along with the specially designed holders that can be fixed to the hole pattern on the sides of the welding laser to accommodate welding wire, joystick, the foot pedal, safety glasses and tools. The 5th wheel on the laser enables the direct transport of the gas bottle, which is extremely practical.

And best of all: the “senior mode” which allows the operator to set or read the laser parameters without reading glasses.

With the new control unit AL-DRIVE, you steer the axes of the AL-CROSS, set them in semi-automatic mode and adjust the laser parameters. The pulse trigger, the R axis and the fast gear are located in the joystick. And whether you are left-handed or right-handed doesn’t matter, because the buttons can be freely programmed.

View the AL-CROSS PDF for full configuration details.

Contact sales@alphalaser.com for more information or fill out the form below for a quote.

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Our upcoming 2020 trade show events, IMTS + FABTECH EXPO, have been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

While we were so excited to meet you, your health and safety is a top priority and we hope to see you next year. Alpha Laser is still fully operational and will provide virtual demonstrations of our lasers or samples through our laser lab. Contact sales@alphalaser.com for a demo or sample.

Please stay tuned to our website and social media platforms to virtually keep up to date on our latest laser technologies.

For more information regarding these event cancellations, please visit the event host websites:

• IMTS 2020: https://www.imts.com/
  • IMTS 2022 will take place Sept. 12-17 in Chicago, IL.
• FABTECH 2020: https://www.fabtechexpo.com/covid-19
  • FABTECH 2021 will take place Sept. 13-16 in Chicago, IL.

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We’re delving into the AL-ROCK: Our 6-axis mobile robotic laser hardening/cladding system

Our AL-ROCK system is the world’s first mobile robot for targeted laser hardening and cladding of metal surfaces. Forget about time-consuming dismounting of heavy components – simply drive the laser, with its self-propelled crawling chassis, directly to the part. The flexible, wide sweeping robot arm easily reaches even the most challenging work pieces.

The turn-key system uses a software package that allows you to scan the component in need of hardening or cladding, which generates a 3-D model of the surface. Then it is as easy as selecting the area that requires the surface treatment. For hardening, the operator only needs to select a temperature set-point and how wide they would like the path to be. For cladding, the operator will select the cladding parameters, bead overlap spacing and number of layers. This technology is 5x more efficient than traditional offline programming. It also reduces the risk of hardening or cladding an incorrect area because the scan was taken directly from the actual part, in comparison to programming from a model that could be the wrong revision or part number.

See the rock in action:

Laser hardening and cladding are quickly gaining momentum in automotive, mining, power generation, medical and aerospace industries. Due to its low heat input and accuracy, many companies are requesting these processes for drawings in place of other conventional methods that introduce a greater risk of cracking and distortion. Lasers are also more efficient and eco-friendly than its predecessors. Another great attribution of the AL-ROCK is its built-in pyrometry. This allows for consistent heat at the work piece, which reduces the risk of melting edges or overheating in an area that may have a thin cross section.

 

Extensive research and development are proving these processes through sample programs and real time production work at our laser lab. For more information, or to get involved with our sample programs, contact sales@alphalaser.com or call (814) 336-9000.

View full PDF for configuration details.

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We now offer preventative maintenance packages to keep your system in optimum condition!

Our Bronze, Silver and Gold options are available for a 1 or 3 year contract and covers maintenance on one laser welding system.

A sheet with details on pricing and benefits is below. If interested in a quote, contact service@alphalaser.com.

Download: Alpha Laser US l PMP l Front and Back

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Rapid+ tct

• April 20-23, 2020
• Booth # 3639
• https://rapid3devent.com/

Offshore Technology Conference

• May 4-7, 2020
• Booth # 6723
• http://2020.otcnet.org/

FABTECH Canada

• June 16-18, 2020
• Booth # 763
• https://canada.fabtechexpo.com/

IMTS 2020

• Sep 14-19, 2020
• Booth # 236048
• https://www.imts.com/

FABTECH

• Nov 18-20, 2020
• Booth # 5831
• https://www.fabtechexpo.com/

Laser Cladding is a technique for welding one metal to the surface of another metal through the coaxial delivery of a stream of metallic powder and a highly focused laser beam. It is widely used in industrial applications or parts repair and surface coating.

Instead of trashing a part that costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, expensive parts can be repaired and kept in service with laser cladding and be brought into spec for a fraction of the cost of replacing the part. Laser Cladding can be used to repair anything from a small imperfection to the application of an inch-thick wear-resistant surface.

There are many applications for Laser Cladding

Laser Cladding has many potential applications besides industrial parts repair.

With other methods of welding or cladding, choices of metals are limited. A welder usually must use the same metal as the base metal. Not so with laser cladding which can weld nearly any metal or alloy to the base metal:  420 Stainless, tool steel, Stellite (a range of cobalt-chromium alloys), P20, H13, Waspaloy or nearly any material desired.

Laser cladding also has a lot of flexibility when it comes to automation. Cladding is done via coaxial delivery: the powder and the laser are delivered on the same axis, moving at the part in exactly the same direction. Once programmed, a robot can deliver the laser cladding perfectly every time.

It can also replace nitriding. Instead of imbuing a surface metal with nitrogen via gas, salt bath or plasma, an alloy of choice can be applied via laser cladding with an extremely low heat affected zone with no change to the structure of the base metal.

Laser cladding can potentially be used in the design and manufacture of parts to save costs on materials. For instance, a cutting blade could be designed with a “hard enough”, inexpensive tool steel. Then an alloy or metal with excellent strength and cutting capabilities could be added with laser cladding. This would not only reduce the cost of the materials but save on machining as well, as the base metal is easier to cut.

An example of industrial parts repair with laser cladding

A client of Alpha Laser had a problem with a hydraulic twin pullback ram for their very large forging press which makes crankshafts. The diameter of the shaft of the ram was out of spec by .035”. The ram performed a critical operation in the forge and its dimensions had to be perfect so they asked Alpha Laser to bring it back into spec via laser cladding.

The base metal of the shaft was 4140 alloy steel. Alpha Laser welding technicians added .060 – .070” of 4130 alloy steel to the shaft. Then the ram was returned to the client for post-weld machining to bring its diameter into spec.

In the video below, the robot arm with the laser head is firing the laser and adding the powder at the same time. The powder melts in a pool on the surface and hardens immediately.

Texturing is widely used in molding plastic parts. It’s the difference between a perfectly smooth part (aka “polished”) and one which has a textured surface (rougher) for tactile reasons or visual appeal.

Examples of textured plastic parts might be your computer mouse, the case for your computer, your car’s dashboard, its steering wheel, the armrests on your auto doors or office chair, milk jugs, caps for cosmetic products, the handle on your handgun, casing for medical equipment, and much more. Textured plastic parts are everywhere.

Molds for these textured parts are very expensive to produce. The texture inside the mold is usually acid-etched (acid is applied directly to the surface) or laser-etched (a similar process to engraving). If the textured surface of the mold is damaged, that change is very obvious in the part produced by the mold, even damage as minute as a few thousandths of an inch. And textured molds are easily damaged – even an errant screwdriver tap can damage the surface.

Parts from a damaged mold are trashed since the defects are so obvious. The manufacturer has a choice then of either trashing the entire component and having another made (extremely expensive) or repairing the mold, which can be done by traditional TIG welding or laser welding.

TIG welding vs Laser welding in repairing a textured mold

Repairing the mold is very intricate and requires a high level of skill, but it is vastly less expensive than trashing it and creating another from scratch. In some cases, the texture must be polished off, the mold repaired, and then new texture applied.

TIG welding is frequently employed in textured mold repair, but TIG welding poses problems. First, the welder must match the hardness of the base metal of the mold to the alloy used for the welding. Then the welded surface is heat-treated up to 3 times and machined. Throughout the TIG welding and tempering, the hardness of the base metal may change from the applied heat – the base metal changes to 440 for instance and the applied weld metal is 420. While this change won’t be visible to the naked eye, it’s a problem for the acid used for texturing. Even if the hardness of the metals is slightly different, when acid is applied to re-texture the mold, the difference will be visible in the molded part, as the acid affects different hardnesses at different speeds.

When repairing the mold with laser welding, it’s much more accurate. The laser technician can adjust the weld as they go and mimic the texturing. They don’t have the visual limitations (arc and welding shield) of TIG welding. Also, the hardness of the base metal isn’t affected as the laser produces heat in a highly focused area and not beyond. Naturally, this is not a foolproof process and requires enormous technical skill on the part of the laser technician. The TIG weld, because of its high heat input, can actually change the structure of the metal, and cause changes in hardness, not only on the surface but also below the weld in the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ). Laser welding also quenches at a much more measurable rate, allowing experienced laser welders to know exactly how hard they should expect the welded material to be.

For instance, a manufacturer came to us with a mold for a woodgrain door. Many doors sold at home centers are made from plastic, with a woodgrain look imparted by the textured mold. This company’s marketing department wasn’t satisfied with the depth of the woodgrain and didn’t think consumers would buy it – it wasn’t close enough to the real thing.

Our laser welding technician added material to the woodgrain texture so it would cut deeper into the molded plastic. And no machining was required after the weld. This adjustment of the mold was much less expensive for the manufacturer than producing a new mold from scratch.

Laser welding offers many advantages in repairing textured molds rather than using TIG welding or completely trashing the mold and building another.

CNC Machining industry journal Modern Machine Shop featured an article on Alpha Laser U.S. in their June 2019 issue.

The article, entitled Pulsed Laser Welding Speeds Mold Repair, written by Executive Editor Derek Horn, features an interview with Blair Learn of Alpha Laser U.S. and discusses how pulsed laser welding is supplanting TIG welding as the preferred method for mold repair.

Mr. Learn speaks about the 3 advantages of using Pulsed Laser Welding:

1. Pulsed Laser Welding shortens repair time
2. Pulsed Laser Welding minimizes workpiece hardness reduction
3. Pulsed Laser Welding provides more repeatable results

 

Mr. Learn says new advances are making pulsed laser welders more capable. One is higher power. In 2010, the highest power available for an Nd: YAG pulsed laser welder was 200 watts. Since then, Alpha Laser and other manufacturers have developed 300-watt models. The company also offers 500-watt models. He says these have twice the welding speed of 300-watt models and can use larger-diameter filler wire to further increase metal deposition rates. The maximum wire diameter for a 300-watt model typically is 0.025 inch, while a 500-watt can use as wire as large as 0.0625 inch.

Another advance is improved mobility. Self-propelled Alflak models are available with continuous, tank-like caterpillar tracks. Mr. Learn says this enables the welding unit to easily drive from location to location, even in big plants where large molds, tooling or parts move on rails. These are the company’s largest laser models, offering arm extension of almost 9 feet. The laser head can rotate to face straight up or down to access a variety of workpiece features, too.”

Read the entire article in Modern Machine Shop here. or click here to read the PDF.

Alpha Laser U.S. (alphalaser.com) is dedicated to advancing laser welding technology across all manufacturing sectors while maintaining the best laser welders on the market.

Modern Machine Shop (www.mmsonline.com) is the leading publication and media brand in North America devoted to CNC machining. They report on the ways CNC machining technology is advancing and succeeding in job shops, contract shops and captive operations. MMS combines unprecedented editorial access to manufacturing facilities with decades of experience to provide long-form content that is both insightful and impactful.

Alpha Laser’s ALFlak 300 and ALM 300 are 2 of our most popular laser welders, used in businesses worldwide.

The AlFlak 300 Laser Welder – Flexible and Fast

In the automotive industry, when a mistake is made in machining a part, it’s a lengthy process to repair it with traditional welding. The part has to be removed from the milling machine, moved to the welder, pre-heated, welded, installed back in the mill, retouch the tooling, and finally weld it. This repair process can take hours to days.

But with laser welding, the repair can happen in minutes. As seen in the image below, Alpha Laser’s AlFlak 300 laser welder is lifted directly into the mill, where the part is repaired within an hour, without any further disruption to the manufacturing process. After the part is fixed, the AlFlak 300 is lifted out.

This is a true breakthrough in technology – The AlFlak 300 laser welder is fast, flexible, and easy to learn.

The ALM 300 Laser Welder – When Accuracy and Maneuverability Matter

The ALM 300 Laser Welder, known for its extreme flexibility and power, is used in almost every industry, spanning Tool & Die, Automotive, Aerospace, Defense, Fabrication/Manufacturing, and others.

Below is an ALM 300 repairing an injection mold. Instead of removing the entire mold from the press, and then removing the damaged component, the ALM 300 laser welder can repair the damaged part accurately while still in the press, and the weld can be hand worked off so that the injection molding press can be back up and running in a matter of minutes instead of days or hours.

The ALM’s main advantage is flexibility. It has a relatively small body and can be placed in locations with very little space. When the arm is extended all the way out, it can reach over 4.5 feet. It has a brake based locking system, so you can unlock the brakes, manipulate the arm into location in seconds, then lock the brakes and start welding. This flexibility is extremely important when large or cumbersome parts have to be accessed, or when welding needs to be done in an area with very little space to maneuver.

The ALM and ALFlak laser welders provide extreme flexibility and power. This allows for quick repairs in previously impossible positions!

See more on the ALM laser welder.

See more on the AlFlak 300 laser welder.

The Alpha Laser AL-ARM fiber laser welding system is the first laser of its kind in the manufacturing and repair fields. While some of today’s standard procedures like TIG and MIG welding produce quality issues like weld spatter and cracking, the AL-ARM system ups the ante with its increased precision, accuracy, control, and positional flexibility. This flexibility and precision results in a superior and faster weld.

Laser welding systems are often compared to TIG and MIG welding systems since they share similar applications. But laser welders have some extreme advantages over both of these such as:

• much lower heat input
• lower dilution
• very little or no sinc
• no pre or post heat treatment required
• much less pre and post weld processing/machining.

The AL-ARM system takes all of these benefits and blends them with its fiber laser system to produce precision, automation, and real-time monitoring. In the end, you get a clean project aesthetic, a safer work environment, very minimal distortion, and superior weld quality.

How the AL-ARM Fiber Laser Welder Works

The AL-ARM system comprises a high-quality fiber laser coupled to a pistol head which is held by the operator perpendicular to the workpiece. As it feeds welding wire, the AL-ARM uses drive wheels to move across the work surface. The operator controls the welding process while he or she views the weld in real time under magnification from cameras that project the process directly to their welding goggles or to a monitor. This enables real-time monitoring that allows the operator to control the weld in-process. The AL-ARM’s design also allows the operator to jump from part to part while they weld without sacrificing flexibility, reliability, efficiency, or accuracy.

The capability to drive the AL-ARM’s pistol head and wire at the same time essentially means the operator just has to hold the laser steady while using the vision system to keep the beam in focus. This is obviously a big advantage over TIG and MIG welding procedures because the operator has a clear and bright field of view and isn’t restricted to viewing the process through a tinted shield. This ease of use, coupled with the flexibility of the pistol, makes the AL-ARM perfect for a wide variety of uses in fabrication and manufacturing.

Alpha Laser developed the AL-ARM Fiber Laser Welding System for industries with specialized repair applications, such as:

• spot welding repairs where the production process produces defects or no-fill areas, as in the automobile industry.
• repairs that require long travel distance, like scribe line welds.
• large tooling and part repairs, such as nickel shell molds.
• large, single-cavity tooling that’s hard to position on a traditional laser welder system.

An additional benefit of laser welding in general and particularly with the AL-ARM system is low heat input. The quality and precision of the AL-ARM’s fiber laser system combined with its lack of heat mean that the operator can work with the welded material with his or her bare hands almost immediately after the welding is done. This increases job efficiency and attention to detail.

The Alpha Laser AL-ARM is by far the safest, most flexible, precise, and diverse laser welder on the market. Contact us today for more information.