SPONSORED CONTENT: BEAM SHAPING


speeds in certain materials without inducing defects, such as pores or cracking. ‘This is exactly what our


corporate research team does at Bosch: take emerging technologies and identify where they can be used in the future.’ During this work the firm will


explore completely new ideas on what can be done with the new DBL technology. ‘While you can do a lot of processes with the state-of-the-art adjustable beam quality lasers now available, this new option to change the beam shape during the process will create a lot of freedom for future process design,’ said Ramsayer. Another advantage of Civan’s


coherent-beam-combining technology is that it enables small spot sizes to be achieved over large working distances. ‘Currently, the optics have to be very close to your part if you want to have a small spot size on the workpiece, however, with this technology you can increase the distance, enabling you to cover a larger working field with a scanner,’ said Ramsayer. ‘This will be very important for increasing remote welding speeds, or


improving remote welding quality at the same speeds, which will enable more reliable and efficient production of products in future.’ This is why, in his opinion,


high-frequency dynamic beam shaping is one of the next steps for laser material processing. ‘While it certainly won’t be applicable to all of our processes, I believe we will find numerous instances where it is beneficial,’ Ramsayer continued. ‘This is why Bosch is very interested in the technology.’


Putting it to work However, to bring the DBL into production, Bosch still has to conduct more fundamental research on how it can be used to influence processes. ‘Once we achieve this we can find applications for it,’ affirmed Ramsayer. ‘We certainly have applications in mind, for example, in the production of fuel cells, electric drives and power electronics for future vehicles, so we’ll likely start with these and then find other processes where it’s also beneficial.’ While the beam shapes


achievable with Civan’s DBLs


“We take emerging technologies and identify where they can be used in the future”


are possible with other lasers, expensive, specialised optics are currently required to do this, and even then these don’t enable the beam shape to be adjusted during processing. ‘So the innovation of DBL technology is you now have one system that can produce numerous beam shapes at high frequency without first having to change in optics,’ Ramsayer remarked. ‘This will be very useful if you have to perform different welds on a single part, or across multiple parts in quick succession.’ Bosch Research envisions the


technology being particularly applicable to the field of e-mobility, where it will put it to


work in the welding of hairpins, busbars and bipolar stacks for battery, electric drives, and fuel cells respectively. ‘These require lots of high quality, long welds to be made, and all have a very high cost pressure associated with them due to the expense of e-mobility,’ said Ramsayer. ‘This technology should enable us to ramp up the production of such parts while also making them smaller and better.’ The laser is regarded as an important technology in e-mobility production, but the quality and reproducibility of the welds must improve over what they are currently, Ramsayer continued. ‘While today, we adjust all the parameters we have currently available to achieve this – welding speed, laser power, focus diameter – we cannot currently change the beam profile during the process with ease,’ he concluded. ‘We believe high-frequency dynamic beam shaping could be used to improve the quality and speed of our processes, ultimately allowing us to provide better products at lower prices for our customers.’ l


New white paper now online


EV BATTERY THERMAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM


This paper will explain the importance of batteries, their thermal management systems, and how new technologies such as Dynamic Beam Lasers can change the way batteries and their cooling plates are produced.


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