NEW FACILITY FEATURES AUTOMATED HIGH-SPEED LASER WELDING

In a new manufacturing technology program, a team of scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory is establishing an ultra-high-speed laser-welding facility. Located at FMC Corporation's Minneapolis ordnance plant, the facility will evaluate the benefits of automated high-energy laser welding over conventional welding processes and determine its value in terms of reduced costs, increased structural integrity, and increased production rate. The new laser-welding facility combines the demonstrated capabilities of high-speed laser welding with well established numerical control of machine tooling. It is projected that the new facility should be able to increase welding speeds tenfold and greatly reduce current dependence on labor-intense, manual welding. Although the initial emphasis of the new program is on laser welding, similar savings are expected to evolve in other processing areas, such as cutting, heat treatment, and cladding, and in areas unique to laser processing, such as surface alloying. A comprehensive processing system, including all of these operations, could be configured to work with a single high-energy laser serving several work stations in a time-sharing mode of operation.

• Corporate Authors:

  Naval Material Command Headquarters

  Attn: MAT-08T4
  Washington, DC  United States  20360
• Publication Date: 1980-6

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 1
• Serial:
  • Navy Technology Transfer Fact Sheet
  • Volume: 5
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: National Technical Information Service

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic welding; Cutting; Lasers; Metal heating; Numerical control; Welding
• Uncontrolled Terms: Heat treatment
• Old TRIS Terms: Automatic welding systems; Laser cutting; Laser welding; Welding techniques
• Subject Areas: Construction; Marine Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00316221
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 8 1980 12:00AM