Fiber lasers in the power range of 1000 W to 3000 W can weld heavier metals connections at high speeds.
Applications can be as diverse as stainless steel sheets for kitchen tops, galvanized steel backplates for flat screen LCD TV’s, sheet steel for stators in electric motors, structural parts such as turbocharger waste gates, stainless steel bellows, copper wires, tabs for batteries, etc.
Thicknesses of up to 5 mm can be welded and speeds of up to 50 cm/second can be achieved.
Fiber lasers in this power range are increasingly replacing other welding processes such as Resistance Welding (spot welding), TIG welding, MIG welding, Electron beam welding, etc.
With lasers at these power levels, the weld speed is typically only limited to the speed of moving the system or the parts and feeding the parts to and from the system. In the coming years, the power of these lasers is expected to increase by 20% - 30% year on year and even more traditional welding processes will be replaced by laser welding.