Combining remote ablation cutting and remote welding: Opportunities and application areas

Remote Ablation Cutting (RAC) is a most promising process for cutting thin metal sheets in the automotive, medical and consumer industry. Characteristically for the RAC are high cutting velocities for metal foils as well as material processing of box structures without spatter contamination at the inner surface. Furthermore, the system technology for RAC can also be used for other processes, like welding and marking. Thereby, the flexibility of a production unit is increased, compared to a conventional cutting system. Despite several advantages, the RAC is not yet state of the art in industrial production. Reasons for that are lacking knowledge in the area of process itself and in possible application areas. In this paper a conceptual model of the ablation and the ejection mechanism is presented. It consists of the laser beam absorption within the processing zone, the melt ejection from the kerf and the resulting spatter formation above the part surface. Besides the model, the process boundaries and limitations are identified using empirical data. Addressing possible applications, the following samples of different industrial areas are introduced to show the potential of the process: Cutting of heat exchanger plates, cylinder head seals, and cathode/anode material for Li-Ion-Batteries. Furthermore, a concept and first results of the combined processing of remote cutting and welding with one laser and one scanner optics are presented.