Laser Welding

Laser Welding is an efficient and effective process. However, high quality welds require accurate part positioning. The conventional approach would be to provide high quality joint preparation and complex fixtures to ensure the parts are presented accurately. Both the point preparation and fixtures add significant costs to the operation and in many cases it is very difficult to achieve the required accuracy. Non contact, vision based joint tracking provides an excellent solution to this problem. Tracking systems ensure the weld is placed correctly without the need for expensive fixtures and it is often possible to reduce the quality of joint preparation required. Non contact tracking is more responsive and reliable then contact based tracking
systems.

Meta is one of the leading suppliers of non-contact tracking systems for laser welding. Meta has supplied systems both for tailor welded blank applications and also applications in the body shop and has over 30 systems in use. The latest Meta product is the Laser Pilot-HS which can be used with both YAG and CO2 weld processes. The Laser Pilot-HS is available in two versions:

• MTR-HS typically for use with robots. In this case correction signals are provided via serial or analog/digital interfaces to the robot
  controller
• MTX-HS includes a high precision slides(s). The slide is mounted on the robot or machine and carries the weld head and sensor. The MTX-HS controls the slide position, based on the seam position, to keep the weld head located
  correctly over the seam. In this case only a
  simple interface is required to the robot or
  machine to provide start/stop, error and tracking
  signals.