Coherent's New Fiber Laser: Improves the Welding Stability of EV Batteries

On June 13th, industrial laser and technology developer Coherent announced the launch of a new tunable ring mode (ARM) laser, the latest in the HighLight FL-ARM laser series with significantly improved beam characteristics.

In order to enhance control of the welding process in large size/large format work areas, the new ARM laser targets common deep penetration welding applications in electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing.

In recent years, the exponential growth of the electric vehicle market has greatly promoted the demand for laser welding. Laser welding can accelerate the throughput of battery production, while ensuring the high quality requirements of the automotive industry.
Coherent's HighLight FL-ARM laser has a longer collimated beam length and smaller spot size, enabling high-quality laser deep penetration welding in a large working area and achieving better uniformity and consistency. In addition, combined with adjustable center and outer ring mode beams providing height welding control, the new ARM laser can complete deep penetration welding tasks at a higher speed, thereby reducing ownership costs.

The better laser beam characteristics make it very suitable for specific applications such as thick Busbars and motor stator Hairpins that require deep penetration welding. Customers can complete work faster and more efficiently, while achieving stable and high-quality welding, "said Dr. Karlheinz Gulden, Senior Vice President of Coherent's Laser Components and Subsystems Business Unit, "Recently, we launched a new HIGHmotion 2D remote laser welding joint, which has also been optimized for smaller beam size and wider working area. Although the combination of ARM laser and HIGHmotion 2D remote laser welding joint has been very successfully verified in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries, they can now perfectly complement deep penetration welding applications."

Coherent has recently improved its two laser welding heads, HIGHmotion 2D and PH20 SmartWeld+, which can be seamlessly matched with the HighLight FL-ARM laser. HIGHmotion 2D is very suitable for fast movement of light beams on fixed workpieces to complete multiple welding tasks. PH20 SmartWeld+is the ideal choice for long weld seams or single battery welding layouts. Both use an inner diameter of 100 μ m. Outer diameter 290 μ The detachable fiber optic transmission system of m is connected to the ARM laser.

The HighLight FL-ARM laser is characterized by two independently controllable coaxial beams from a single fiber, with a central beam power of up to 2.5 kW and an outer ring beam power of 7.5 kW. These functions have obtained multiple patents, including the US 10807190 series patents, which can independently adjust the power levels of the central beam and the outer ring beam. These characteristics bring about high-speed, high-throughput splash free processing and reduce overall production costs by largely eliminating the need for post-processing.

Coherent supports customers with customized service agreements through a global service network of factory trained service engineers. Based on the Coherent laboratory, the company collaborates with customers and helps predict and solve a series of difficult manufacturing challenges they encounter.