According to Duggan Manufacturing president Tony Pinho, any new manufacturing technology must pass a simple test: affordability. For that reason, he says, manufacturers of custom, precision metal parts, like his company, must use and be familiar with the most advanced manufacturing technologies. “For example,” he said, “we recently undertook a major investment in remote fiber laser processing equipment and hired Vancho Naumovski, one of the leading experts in the application of remote fiber lasers for welding.”

Duggan Manufacturing, Shelby Township, Mich., manufactures precision metal parts for defense, automotive, aerospace, and alternative energy customers, in low, medium and high volumes.

Naumovski will be Duggan Manufacturing’s new director of laser technology. He has more than 20 years of experience in laser processing, is a co-author on a number of patents in the field With his assistance Duggan designed and built its first remote laser-welding system in just six weeks.”

“What we have established here at Duggan Manufacturing is a unique new flexible laser-welding system, delivered through fiber optics, that significantly reduces weld time on complicated and non-complicated parts,” Naumovski explains. “We have demonstrated production improvements of up to 50% by combining robots within the system.”

He adds that he new process development facility includes a manufacturing cell anchored by an ABB robot and equipped with two Precitec welding heads, a 5-kW IPG fiber laser, two rotary fixtures, and two trunnion fixtures.

“This cell configuration allows us to process a wide variety of two- and three-dimensional parts as well as cylindrical part designs,” according Naumovski. “Initial prototype parts that we are currently targeting are those where remote laser-welding technology has already been proven. These include automotive and truck seating components and assemblies, automotive muffler assemblies, instrument panels, body-in-white assemblies, battery cells and solar cell array assemblies.”

Naumovski lists several reasons that high-powered, remote fiber laser welding, brazing, and cutting has expanded in the past five years. It allows an increase in weld processing speeds; a reduction in consumables, such as weld wire and cover gas,; it requires less tooling and part fixturing; and it substantially reduces the on-going maintenance costs typically associated with conventional welding processes.

With respect to product design, Naumovski says remote laser welding offers the ability to design a product to access all weld locations from one side. It gives designers an option to reduce flange sizes, ultimately benefiting weight reduction. Also, it makes it possible to produce a faster/better quality weld.

Also, the new process has present potential for improving product geometries through higher power densities that permit less heat input within the weld joint, directly reducing heat deformation within the assembly.

Finally, Naumovski says remote fiber laser welding can weld more than twice as fast as either MIG or spot welding. “Typically, spot-welding robots take two to three seconds to generate each weld,” he points out. “A laser can generate two or three welds per second.”

“In a typical remote laser-welding system, Naumovski says, “The high-powered laser beam is focused over a workpiece at distances up to 40-inches. With the right combination of long focal length lenses and computer-controlled targeting mirrors mounted on a robot arm, delivery and positioning of the fiber laser beam can be performed in milliseconds, which is significantly more efficient than conventional laser/resistance spot welding which is limited to cycle times that are determined by the speed of the motion control device.

“The work envelope is only limited to the robot reach capacity,” he continues. “However, remote fiber laser welding is not just a direct replacement process for spot welding: hence, the reason for our new process development facility. To cost-effectively apply this type of laser-welding process, some changes in part design are typically required and Duggan Manufacturing provides the simultaneous engineering/development for the needed changes.”

Naumovski further explains, “Our initial application focus will be on remote fiber laser welding of non-coated steels. However, the process capability includes welding of coated steels and aluminum as well as brazing and cutting. We anticipate adding separate robot end effector heads in our manufacturing cell to demonstrate and prove production intent for these other processes as well.”

Pinho says Duggan has just scratched the surface of the potential and desirability for this technology. “We look forward to working in partnership with defense, aerospace and alternative energy companies as well as our automotive partners in developing new ways to take advantage of the potent combination of lasers, robots and fiber optics,” he says.