Laser Through Transmission Welding of Non-pigmented Glass-pei to Carbon-pei 2013-01-2215

The performance benefits of fiber reinforced composites are now widely accepted and because of the critical importance of weight reduction throughout the aerospace industry, technical progress in many areas is rapid. In the field of high power lasers for material processing, advances are also being made with the widespread introduction of new technology multi-kilowatt fiber lasers; the work presented here successfully combines both technologies. Laser welding of specific composite combinations is demonstrated and mechanical test results are presented. These results show that good weld strength can be achieved at realistic speeds using standard laser optics. There is a strong possibility of scaling these results up to very much higher speeds and to many different material combinations; this will expand the opportunities for this technique considerably.