Thermal
conductivity welding

One example of heat conductivity welding with diode lasers is the welding of basins in stainless steel sink units. Before lasers were in use, these joints were rolled-seam welded. This required three grinding and one polishing processes as finishing. The latter was always necessary because of the surface required, and is independent of the welding process. If a suitable welding seam geometry is selected, the sheets of the sink unit can be conductivity welded with a 1.5 kW diode laser in such a way that the grinding processes can be done away with completely. The welding speed of 1 meter per minute means that production is still cost-effective. Diode lasers can be built very compactly in comparison with other laser beam sources, so the complete beam source can be attached directly to a robot, allowing great flexibility of geometry.