Lasers Finding Their Place


Noncontact laser welding adds value in small parts as well as large. “Lasers are becoming the welding tool of choice, replacing TIG, brazing, or torch welding,” said Todd Deslau- rier, senior applications engineer for LaserStar Technologies (Riverside, RI). “LaserStar Technologies specializes in providing many industries with a wide range of microwelding platforms.” He notes that lasers provide excellent weld consistency, laser pulse stability, low HAZ, and cleanliness. Another part of the growing popular- ity of lasers is the acceptance among a more educated user base. “Lasers [used to be] a scary word among people. Often, people would picture lasers as seen in movies, usually about to cause imminent pain or death to someone,” he said. Prices of lasers have become much more affordable because of technological improvements in cooling and power supply efficiency over the last five–seven years. They are more com- pact, reliable, and portable, making their use more commonplace. While manu- facturers still need to understand lasers and their language for beam quality and delivery, they are becoming more com- fortable with them as they understand the benefits. Companies like LaserStar help in that transition with an education department along with demonstrations and three national application labora- tories. LaserStar can deliver custom turnkey systems tuned for the special needs of their customers.


One example of how Deslaurier is seeing a change is in laser welding for repairing injection molds. “These are quite popular today,” he stated. It is more cost-effective to laser repair a damaged injection mold cavity versus traditional TIG welding methods of years past. “There was a time when most companies sent their molds to job


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shops for repair on laser welders, but now those manufactur- ers are getting more knowledgeable about how to use a laser themselves. They are performing mold repair in-house with their own laser welding systems,” he said. He believes it is


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