What are the requirements for lasers in plastic laser welding? What lasers are used? What are the configurations?

With the development of new material processing technology, plastic products are light in weight, corrosion-resistant, good in insulation and excellent in molding performance. They have replaced traditional materials such as metals and ceramics and are widely used in aviation, shipbuilding, automobiles, medical equipment, food packaging, daily chemical industry and other fields. The quality of plastic parts connection technology is of great significance to the wide application of plastic products.

Plastic laser welding machineWhat are the configurations?

The plastic laser welding device mainly includes laser, welding head and welding fixture.

What kind of laser is used for plastic welding?

The selection of laser is mainly based on the characteristics of plastic materials. Most plastics choose a high wavelength of 808nm~1100nm for lasers. When welding completely transparent materials, it is necessary to add laser absorbents to the raw materials or apply laser absorbents on the surface of the parts to promote laser absorption. For transparent medical materials, lasers with high laser absorption rate wavelengths of 1710nm or 1940nm are used.

PlasticLaserWhat are the requirements for laser welding?

Unlike metal welding, the higher the laser power required for plastic laser welding, the better. The higher the welding laser power, the larger the heat area on the plastic part, and the material will overheat, deform, or even be damaged. The laser power should be selected according to the melting depth. Plastic laser welding speed is relatively fast, generally the welding speed of 1mm thick weld can reach 20%m/min; using high-power CO2 laser to weld plastic film, the maximum speed can reach 750m/min.

Computer software also plays an important role in laser welding system. In addition to digitally controlling the motion trajectory and speed of the laser head, laser power and other general process parameters, the software can also improve the processing speed and accuracy, and improve the processing quality. At the same time, the welding simulation software can obtain the required absorbed dose and addition method before welding according to the thickness, color, absorption rate, laser power, light wave pass rate and other parameters of different materials. During the welding process, the software calculation results are very close to the measurement results. The prediction results of the software calculation screening method are very effective and feasible because plastic laser welding has strong regularity and good predictability.

The above are the requirements for Plastic laser welding. In addition to traditional welding methods, laser melting technology for plastics or polymers has developed into a mature welding method in many industries. Most laser welding methods compete with traditional welding methods to a large extent and provide many technical advantages.