// by Abbe Miller, editor-in-chief //
CHALLENGING
THE STATUS QUO
With its handheld laser welder,
IPG Photonics is shaking up
the industry once again
T
wenty-some years ago,
IPG Photonics Corp.
came roaring onto the
manufacturing scene with
a brand-new technology
that totally flipped the industry on
its head. With its revolutionary fiber
laser, IPG forever changed the way
manufacturers and fabricators slice
through the metals they use. And
today, IPG may be disrupting the
industry once again. The company’s
LightWELD is a handheld laser welder
that is faster, cleaner and easier to
use when compared to traditional
arc welding.
The speed of welding with LightWELD
is incredibly fast because of the high
concentration of the laser light, which
also reduces heat input and the need
for secondary finishing operations. The
ease of use is made possible through
intuitive controls and the inherent
nature of fiber laser welding. And, when
coupled with its air-cooled, integrated
form factor, IPG has essentially created
a higher quality version of manual
welding that is just as portable and easy
to use as any traditional arc welding
equipment on the market.
For new users, making the transition
to laser welding will be fairly
straightforward. Establishing the
right safety protocols will, of course,
be on the to-do list, but fortunately,
if the gun isn’t touching the welding
surface, the laser will not fire. Either
way, one can imagine that the
welding booths of the future will be
delineated by solid partitions instead
of the conventional red curtains used
in fab shops today.
In terms of a learning curve, people
who have never welded before
can pick up the required technique
in no time flat. In an economy
where finding skilled welders is a
difficult prospect, LightWELD truly is
a gamechanger.
“With the LightWELD XC, you
can remove the unnecessary
debris and then switch to the
welding all in one system.”
// Dmitri Novikov, director of business
development, IPG Photonics Corp. //
Digging into the differentiators
Fiber laser welding isn’t a new
concept, of course. For some time,
the technology has been leveraged
in large-scale operations, such as
automotive, aerospace and medical
device manufacturing, in the form of
automated cells and turnkey CNCstyle systems. With the handheld
device, however, many of the benefits
November 2023
are the same, including the ability
to weld highly reflective metals and
dissimilar materials and thicknesses.
In general, though, users just get
much higher quality welds with fiber
laser technology.
“It really comes down to the power
density,” says Dan Earley, LightWELD
product manager at IPG. “With the
fiber laser, we're welding with photons
instead of electrons. We're able to
squeeze those photons down to a much
smaller spot size than the electrons in
an arc welding process. Your power
density on the material is something
like 200 times higher than in arc
welding processes.”
In a nutshell, the higher power density
produces phenomenal results. Users
experience incredibly fast travel
The line of IPG LightWELD handheld fiber laser welding systems include the entrylevel LightWELD, advanced LightWELD XC and the extended-range LightWELD XR.
speeds and throughput and get
the advantages of welding with low
heat input and a minimized heat
affected zone, which results in less
deformation and less requirements
for post-weld work.
The challenge with such a highly
concentrated beam, however, is the
creation of a small spot size. With a
smaller spot size, welders need to
have tight part fit-up or overlap. Poor
fit-up, however, can be overcome
through a few techniques.
Earley says if the part setup is rough or
if there are gaps in the assemblies, IPG
will work with customers to overcome
those challenges from a technique
standpoint. As just one example, a
wobble-welding weave can be employed
up to 5 mm wide, which helps to flow
more material into the joint. The system
can also operate with a cold wire feeder
to add filler metal; IPG estimates that
more than 75 percent of customers are
using a wire feeder with their LightWELD
systems. “If there's an opportunity to
reconfigure the joint geometry design
for welding, we can consult on that, as
well,” he adds.
In terms of models, potential users
can choose from three machines,
starting with the basic LightWELD
1500, which Dmitri Novikov, director
of business development at IPG,
describes as a “handy little system”
that is incredibly lightweight and
portable. The system features a
1.5-kW laser with front panel controls
to easily adjust the laser power
and wobble-welding parameters.
Additionally, built-in optimized presets give operators access to 74
stored modes for different material
and thickness combinations,
including capability to store their
custom settings.
“The next step up is the more
powerful LightWELD XC, which has
the addition of an ablation or cleaning
regime,” Novikov says. “Before you
weld two parts, you need to make
sure that there is no debris, no oils
and just nothing fishy in the weld pool.
Traditionally, you have to remove
all of the debris from the weld with
a separate tool or product, but with
LightWELD XC, you can remove the
unnecessary debris and then switch to
the welding all in one system.”
November 2023
11
The third option is IPG’s LightWELD
XR, which is similar to the LightWELD
XC, but with additional capacity for
welding thicker parts. For steel and
aluminum, weld penetration up to
0.25 in. is possible, and for nickel
alloys, penetration up to 0.20 in. is
possible. These capabilities make the
LightWELD XR well-suited for aerospace
applications, as just one example.
“LightWELD XR also works well with
copper,” Novikov adds. “You cannot
achieve nice welds with a traditional
TIG system because you get spatter,
which will make the seam look bad.
This system, however, produces
very nice weld seams. And because
you can also add wire, all three
LightWELD models work just like
traditional welders.”
Learning laboratory
Even though the line of LightWELD
products are intuitive, easy-to-use
systems, questions do come up from
time to time, and, of course, there
is always room for improvement –
especially when working with a new
product. That’s why IPG makes its
applications labs available to anyone
seeking assistance.
These facilities – more than 20
located around the world and six
in the United States – specialize in
laser materials processing across
a number of different applications
and industries, including medical,
automotive, emobility, electronics
and aerospace. Bill Kallgren, systems
marketing manager at IPG, says
that welding and cutting are the
primary processes addressed at IPG’s
applications labs, but customers can
also come in to get help with laser
ablation, selective material removal
and precision hole drilling.
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“Our application labs serve a number
of functions, including R&D work
to develop new lasers and beam
delivery technology, training,
processing customer-provided
samples and factory acceptance
testing prior to shipping new
systems to customers,” he says.
“Engineers also use the facilities to
develop new processing capabilities,
usually in materials processing
markets in which IPG believes lasers
can be leveraged successfully.
“We welcome visitors in our labs,
but we can also provide demos
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“Handheld laser welding is significantly
faster than traditional TIG and MIG,
and a lot of people have trouble
Watch the video to learn more about the extended-range LightWELD XR, which
includes a cleaning regime. When welding and pre- and post-welding tasks can
be handled with the same system, welders save time and increase throughput.
remotely,” he adds. “For LightWELD,
direct hands-on experience helps
our customers get up to speed
quickly on the use of the systems.
Our distributors also have LightWELD
demonstration capabilities.”
Potential buyers tend to be a little
dubious about claims that the
LightWELD products can weld up to
four times faster than traditional TIG.
And rightfully so – it’s quite the bold
statement. In the end, however,
demonstrations ultimately turn
skeptics into believers.
“Handheld laser welding is
significantly faster than traditional
TIG and MIG, and a lot of people have
trouble believing that the technology
is real – in that it is both easy to
operate and produces high-quality
believing that the technology is real.”
// Bill Kallgren, systems marketing manager,
IPG Photonics Corp. //
should be funneled through the
service department. Challenges
working with unique materials or
part fit-up can often be resolved
remotely where the applications
team can suggest various techniques
or request that materials be sent in
for testing. If it’s determined that
training on LightWELD would be
helpful, that, too, can be coordinated
through the service department or
through a local reseller.
Accessories are included in all LightWELD system packages. For LightWELD XR,
users receive the welding gun, workpiece clamp, welding and cleaning nozzle tips,
cover slides, welding helmet, safety glasses and an Ethernet cable.
welds,” Kallgren says. “Ideally, they
want to test it on their own materials
to gain the confidence that it will do
what they need it to.”
To schedule a demonstration, there
are links on the IPG website to
connect with the LightWELD team
at an IPG facility or at a regional
distributor’s location, and there are
also mobile LightWELD trailers on
the road that can visit customers
and stop at regional trade shows for
hands-on personal demonstrations.
And, of course, there’s the goodold-fashioned method of calling
IPG directly. Kallgren encourages
interested parties to use the
method that is most convenient
for them.
For existing customers that have
questions or need help with their
new LightWELD system, inquiries
“We can evaluate part fit-up
and make recommendations to
facilitate handheld laser welding,
whenever needed,” Kallgren says.
“For challenges surrounding
unique materials, such as working
with galvanized steel, we might
recommend using relatively low laser
power and a filler material to braze
the parts together rather than weld
them, which removes the protective
zinc coating. For part fit-up, we might
recommend changing the joint type
or using filler wire to fill wide gaps.”
Required skill sets
No matter how many times it’s
repeated, it can be hard to believe
November 2023
14
In instances of poor fit-up, a wobble-welding weave technique helps to flow more
material into the joint up to 5 mm wide.
that someone with zero welding
experience can pick up IPG’s
handheld laser welder and make a
beautiful weld on the first try. But,
according to Earley, Novikov and
Kallgren, it’s 100 percent true.
“For brand-new novice users,
we will typically start you with a
wire feeder,” Earley says. “It's not
necessarily intuitive, but the wire
imparts a force when you're welding,
and it actually sets the speed for you.
We call it laser cruise control. So, you
just put the gun down on the joint,
squeeze the trigger and the wire
feeder starts automatically, pushing
you down the weld joint at the right
speed. All you have to do is guide it
down the right path.”
November 2023
"Your power density on the material
[when welding with LightWELD] is
something like 200 times higher than
in arc welding processes.”
// Dan Earley, LightWELD product manager,
IPG Photonics Corp. //
Earley is quick to mention, however,
that experienced welders might not
do as well as a novice welder on the
first try. “They have so much muscle
memory built up that laser welding
sometimes feels completely foreign
to them,” he says. “But, for a business
owner or decision maker with zero
welding experience, when they see
how easy it is and the quality of the
results, they're able to make the
decision to adopt the LightWELD
technology and bring it in-house fairly
quickly.”
In terms of programming the system,
that, too, is incredibly simple. In
addition to giving users access to the
bank of provided welding modes,
users can also store their own
customized parameters for later use.
Less-skilled welders can then retrieve
those parameters to produce the
same results as a more experienced
welder. And, switching between
stored modes is instant and easy.
In terms of solving labor challenges,
LightWELD can quickly make effective
welders out of folks that have never
picked up a welding gun before.
But, it is also being used to augment
workloads in environments where
skilled welders are being spread
thin. In these situations, simple
monotonous work can be handed
over to a less experienced welder
with a LightWELD system while the
more challenging, high-value TIG
work, for example, can be given to a
veteran welder.
With ease of use locked down,
the main issue to overcome is
remembering that unlike traditional
arc welding equipment, laser welding
involves sensitive laser optics that
have to be maintained and cleaned.
Despite an ingress protection rating of
IP54, “ruggedized” applications aren’t
necessarily low-hanging fruit for the
new systems – although they are on
IPG’s longer term roadmap. For now,
precision sheet metal fabrication
is the sweet spot for LightWELD,
Earley says – handled by brand-new
welders, nonetheless.
IPG PHOTONICS CORP.
November 2023
16