United States

Laser welding is crucial in the manufacturing of e-mobility components, especially for parts made of copper and aluminum. However, welding these materials poses significant challenges due to their high reflectivity and thermal conductivity, leading to insufficient penetration depth and reduced mechanical properties. Beam shaping offers a promising solution to overcome these challenges by modifying the laser beam&#39;s spatial intensity distribution. The use of beam-shaping optics can significantly enhance the welding process by controlling the energy distribution and improving the weld&#39;s quality.&lt;br&gt;
In this study, we demonstrate the successful welding of aluminum battery cases and copper busbars using beam shaping with multi-plane light conversion. Multi-plane light conversion is a novel technique that enables the creation of complex intensity profiles by redirecting the laser beam through multiple planes of phase modulators. Our results show that beam shaping significantly improves the weld quality by reducing spatters and pores, and enhances the mechanical properties of the weld. The multi-plane light conversion technique offers an additional degree of freedom in shaping the intensity profile, enabling further optimization of the weld&#39;s quality, and present a higher depth of field enabling a more robust process.&lt;br&gt;
The successful welding of copper and aluminum components using beam shaping offers a promising solution for the reliable and efficient manufacturing of e-mobility components.

ICALEO 2023

E-mobility Laser Welding Thanks to Beam Shaping Based on Multy-Plane Light Conversion

e-mobility

laser beam welding

multi-plane light conversion

beam-shaping

Laser welding is crucial in the manufacturing of e-mobility components, especially for parts made of copper and aluminum. However, welding these materials poses significant challenges due to their high reflectivity and thermal conductivity, leading to insufficient penetration depth and reduced mechanical properties. Beam shaping offers a promising solution to overcome these challenges by modifying the laser beam's spatial intensity distribution. The use of beam-shaping optics can significantly enhance the welding process by controlling the energy distribution and improving the weld's quality. 
In this study, we demonstrate the successful welding of aluminum battery cases and copper busbars using beam shaping with multi-plane light conversion. Multi-plane light conversion is a novel technique that enables the creation of complex intensity profiles by redirecting the laser beam through multiple planes of phase modulators. Our results show that beam shaping significantly improves the weld quality by reducing spatters and pores, and enhances the mechanical properties of the weld. The multi-plane light conversion technique offers an additional degree of freedom in shaping the intensity profile, enabling further optimization of the weld's quality, and present a higher depth of field enabling a more robust process. 
The successful welding of copper and aluminum components using beam shaping offers a promising solution for the reliable and efficient manufacturing of e-mobility components.

technical paper

**General Chair Welcome**

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Welcome to ICALEO® 2023!
	
We were excited to host the world’s leading international conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in Chicago. The Laser has been shown to have the potential to revolutionize solutions for major global challenges like energy usage and supply, global warming, and CO2 footprint. Even the fusion energy breakthrough is based on laser technology. The conference, with peer-reviewed scientific and technical presentations, focused on the newest results in Micro Applications, Macro Applications, Additive Manufacturing, Beam Shaping and Frontiers in Laser Applications. Additionally, the Battery-Manufacturing Track gave an overview of the process combined with the newest advances in laser application results. 

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Whether this is the first time you are hearing about ICALEO or you are a longtime attendee, you will find something of interest, new ideas, and an excellent opportunity to network with other laser specialists worldwide. 

**Klaus Löffler **  
ICALEO General Chair   
Managing Director, Precitec GmbH

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Please register for the ICALEO 2023 Conference to join the event.

ICALEO® brings together the brightest minds, seasoned professionals, and pioneering researchers from around the world. With a laser-focused agenda, ICALEO offers an exceptional platform to delve into the cutting-edge advancements, diverse applications, and transformative research that define lasers and electro-optics.

Pure copper is widely used for various industrial products due to its high thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and friction properties. However, high-quality and high-efficiency connections of copper materials remain a challenge for industrial applications because pure copper has a low absorption rate of near-infrared light and is difficult to weld stably with a near-infrared laser. The light absorption rate for pure copper increases with shorter wavelengths. As such, visible light lasers should realize high-efficiency laser welding of pure copper. However, there are few reports comparing the laser wavelength dependence of welding efficiency for pure copper. In this study, bead-on-plate welding were performed on pure copper plates of 2 mm thickness using a 16 kW IR disk laser (1030 nm), a 3 kW green disk laser (515 nm), and a 1.5 kW blue diode laser (450 nm) to investigate the effect of laser wavelength on welding. Bead-on-plate welding of pure copper was performed in thermal conduction mode or keyhole mode by varying the laser spot diameter and power, and the amount of melting was measured from cross-sectional observations. As a result, compared to the IR laser, the blue and green lasers showed higher melting efficiency in both thermal conduction mode and keyhole mode, and the melting behavior was more stable.

Comparison of Melting Efficiency Between Blue, Green, and IR Lasers in Pure Copper Welding

Aluminum is becoming increasingly important in automotive vehicle construction. On the one hand, its use leads to a reduction in vehicle weight, and on the other hand it offers advantages over fiber composites in terms of recycling, i.e. reusability. Die-casting alloys are used when complex components are required at low costs. Furthermore, the use of high-strength wrought aluminum alloys (6XXX and 7XXX) is increasing in crash-relevant structures, for example the battery tray. However, during laser welding of these material combinations, there is a high risk of pore formation (die casting alloys) and hot cracks initiation (high-strength wrought alloys). 
At Fraunhofer IWS, a novel process technological approach is under development, using laser beam welding with dynamic beam shaping. This welding technology significantly controls the formation of the melt pool and the stress situation during solidification and cooling of the melt. Through the defined selection of process parameters, on the one hand the porosity of the die-cast welds can be significantly reduced. On the other hand, hot cracking of critical materials can be reliably avoided even without the use of filler metal. 
The object of this presentation is to demonstrate the potential of laser welding with high-frequency beam oscillation for aluminum battery tray manufacturing. Set-up and parameter field of the welding process are presented and results of the process development for typical joint geometries in combination of cast and wrought aluminum are discussed. Initial results from the preliminary tests for final component manufacturing are presented too.

Laser Welding Without Filler Material of Aluminum Die-cast and Extruded Profiles for Battery Trays

SLAM - Is Femtosecond Machnining During Additive Manufacturing Beneficial ?

Laser bioprinting techniques are emerging as an ideal tool for cell printing due to their excellent cell viability, close to 100%, and high spatial resolution. In this paper, we discuss a special adaptation of the Blister-Actuated Laser Induced Forward Transfer (BA-LIFT) technique for cell printing, performed at the Laser Center UPM. BA-LIFT is a well-known laser direct writing technique and has been used for biological material transfer before. However, in our case we use a thick polyimide layer (30 microns) for blister generation, which provides exceptional protection of the cells from the incoming laser beam. Due to the transparency of this material in the VIS range, we can implement both fluorescence and conventional vision systems coaxial with the laser path to identify the cells to be transferred, opening up the possibility of cell sorting and even cell survival tracking in both donor and acceptor substrates. Negative and positive selection of cells is possible with this setup, with the possibility of leaving the cells to be transferred completely unaltered in the case of negative selection. &nbsp;We present some recent applications of this technique developed in our laboratory, including single-cell isolation for single-cell sequencing in translational medical applications and current studies for applications in tissue engineering. In addition, we present a high-speed imaging study of the transfer process to discuss the dynamics of jet generation and cell deposition mechanisms in the acceptor substrate using our approach.

Laser Bioprinting Using BA-LIFT: From Single Cell Isolation to Tissue Engineering

Ultra-fast Beam Shaping Using Coherent Beam Combining

While conventional vehicle design disciplines such as car body design are established, electromobility-specific disciplines are in the technological orientation and ramp-up phase. 
In particular, the demand for components like batteries, e-motors and power electronics is growing continuously. Aluminum alloys are chosen for parts like casted power electronics housings and heat exchangers made of sheet metal or extrusion profiles. Next to the material-specific challenges and mentioned requirements, the focus is on the gas-tight welding of the aluminum alloys. 
This paper offers an insight into the requirements of these parts as well as the innovative optics approach with a novel MultiFocus solution and multi core fiber technologies. The material-specific challenges, especially for helium-tight welding of aluminum casted housings with forging alloys are characterized. This analysis is conducted using gas-tightness measurements, CT-scans, micrographs and high-speed recordings in order to elaborate the fundamental laser-material-process interdependencies and the correlation between process and resulting quality in terms of tightness. 
Furthermore, high speed synchrotron recordings are conducted at the DESY and based on that a detailed evaluation of the laser and material interaction is conducted. This allows an explanation of the interactions for the prevention of pore formation in aluminum alloys and thus the characterization of the boundary conditions for a reliable process of gas-tight welding on aluminum alloys.

Welding of Cast Aluminum Alloys for Power Electronics: In-Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Analysis of Different Laser Beam Shaping Technologies for the Prevention of Defects

Brass represents a large part in the production of components within the copper alloy group. Laser beam welding of this alloy offers great potential for many applications in terms of achievable seam quality and productivity. However, there is a very high tendency of the process to produce irregular seam surfaces, ejection of the molten metal and pore formation. These are due, among other things, to instabilities of the keyhole, which is favored by the evaporation of the alloy component zinc. Furthermore, near-infrared laser beam wavelength can couple poorly into the material due to the low absorption level of brass, whereas absorption jumps during the melt transition. In recent years, high-brilliance near-infrared laser beam sources with adjustable beam profiles have been developed that can lead to keyhole stabilization. 
The experimental process investigations are on deep penetration welding of different brass alloys (CuZn37 and CuZn39Pb3). A multi-kW laser beam source with combined core and ring beam is used for this purpose. Main process parameters are identified and systematically varied. The produced seams are analyzed and evaluated using different methods (including micrograph analysis and topography images). The results are correlated with the process parameters. Line Energy per unit length, spot size and process gas supply have a significant effect on the weld seam resulting. Process parameters were found to produce high quality bead on plate and butt welds for sheet thicknesses of 2 mm.

Laser Beam Welding of Brass With Combined Core and Ring Beam

Fast oscillation of the laser beam is an established and proven method for beam shaping to improve laser material processing in terms of machining quality, process stability, and time. In the first part, an overview will be given for available and already proven oscillation devices as 
well as equipment under development. Solutions for beam oscillations in x and y direction as well as solutions for oscillations of the focal plane along the beam propagation direction (z direction) are introduced. Advantages and disadvantages of the various concepts are considered and 
evaluated. 
In the second part, examples will be provided to demonstrate the profitable use of fast laser beam oscillations for the applications of cutting, welding, hardening, and cladding. Finally, opportunities of 3D beam shaping provided by oscillating the beam focus in three spatial directions 
simultaneously or opportunities utilizing x/y oscillations of the laser focal point like a jigsaw are discussed. Consideration is given to whether beam oscillations have the potential to eliminate the need for ever higher laser powers or different wavelength.

Fast Beam Oscillations Improve Laser Material Processing

Automotive lamps have not only functional roles but have highly aesthetic purposes in the design of a car. As such, they use complex three-dimensional shapes to implement various designs. The main manufacturing challenge comes from the plastic bonding process of the complex components which currently is done by thermal bonding, ultrasonic bonding, and laser welding. Laser welding processes with a narrow joint area are preferred since they require minimal joint area and produce no burr. In this study, an optimization study for simultaneous bonding of lamps is carried out using multiple light sources generated by connecting specially manufactured bundle optical fibers with a diode laser source. The diode laser beams with a wavelength of 915 nm and a power of 80 W, each, were simultaneously delivered through a 30-optical fibers bundle. The fibers were integrated within the mold that holds the lamp achieving transmission welding through the overlapped upper transparent polymer PMMA (IF850) and the lower nontransparent polymer ABS (HL121H). The process parameters investigated were the laser power, duration time, waveguide gap, and clamping pressure. We present optimized process parameters that achieved no pores and relatively uniform melting. In the shear test, the average load was approximately 1300 N, and the base sheet fractures along the welding joints were observed.

Experimental Evaluation of PMMA-ABS Transmission Welding Using Mold-Integrated Simultaneous Laser Welding Technology

Endless carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) are important lightweight construction materials. While the majority contains a thermoset matrix material, latest developments see an increase of CFRP with a thermoplastic matrix (CFRTP). This is due to their enhanced machinability and versatile material characteristics. However, high-performance thermoplastics and endless carbon fibres are both expensive resources. During the production of parts made from CFRTP, scrap-pieces and left-overs from the cutting process are usually disposed of. To increase the resource efficiency, a process is developed that includes the autonomous laser cutting of such CFRTP remnants to chips of unified dimensions, which can then be reused in the production of long-fibre reinforced CFRTP laminates. 
This study focuses on the laser process development for the cutting of CFRTP with a polyether ether ketone (PEEK) matrix. The development aims for short processing times and minimum thermal alteration of the PEEK. Laser cutting of semi-finished CFRTP is especially challenging, because although most fibres within a carbon fibre roving might be cut, individual fibres might still be intact and may cause fibre pull-out that would severely reduce the cutting-edge’s quality. Therefore, to verify that the CFRTP was completely cut, an optical process monitoring system is developed. 
In this investigation, process parameters are evaluated in terms of cutting time, surface appearance, and the completeness of the cuts. Surface analysis shows colour changes of the PEEK on an area of less than 1mm from the cutting edge. The monitoring system for cut completeness was introduced and showed good detection results.

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E-mobility Laser Welding Thanks to Beam Shaping Based on Multy-Plane Light Conversion

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Comparison of Melting Efficiency Between Blue, Green, and IR Lasers in Pure Copper Welding