TY - CONF A1 - Rethmeier, Michael T1 - Laser and hybrid welding with ultra high power lasers N2 - Welding with high-power lasers has a history of over 30 years. With the introduction of high-powerCO2 lasers, the subject was investigated as early as the 1990s as part of various research projects. A renewed interest in the subject was awakened with the market launch of high-brilliance, high-power fibre and disc lasers at the beginning of the 2000s. In industrial production, the use of high-power lasers for welding shipbuilding constructions at the same time as for mobile crane construction is mainly associated with low-alloy high-strength steels with a maximum wall thickness of 15 mm. The use of high-power multi 10kW lasers for even greater sheet thicknesses (20mm-100 mm) promises significantly greater advantages [1]. For these wall thicknesses the economic, technological and ecological advantages of the process over conventional welding methods become especially clear and visible [2]. Despite numerous research projects on this topic, laser technology still faces a number of hurdles that need to be overcome. The new lasers with scalable laser powers up to 100 kW and the application of an electromagnetic weld pool support as well as local vacuum environment widen the possible application range tremendously. In this contribution, the authors address the technical solutions for high-power laser beam welding in the field of thick sheet metal applications, highlight the technological and normative challenges in the industrial implementation of the process and present a perspective for the first concrete applications in the field of off-shore wind energy. T2 - Stuttgarter Laser Tage CY - Stuttgart, Germany DA - 04.06.2024 KW - High-power laserbeam welding KW - Thick plates KW - Electromagnetic weld pool support PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62412 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -