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Obwohl das Laserdurchstrahlschweißen sehr reproduzierbar arbeitet, können Fehler aus den Vorprozessen Compoundieren, Spritzgießen etc. das Schweißergebnis negativ beeinflussen. Dem Anwender steht inzwischen eine breite Palette an Prozessüberwachungsmethoden zur Verfügung, um eine gleich bleibende Produktqualität zu erzielen.
The joint strength is gaining importance in quasi -simultaneous laser transmission welds, especially in structural components. A correlation between the joint strength and a process characteristic is a basic requirement for selecting the best process parameter setting. In this work, the temperature is measured during welding polyamide 6 by using a scanner-integrated pyrometer with an InGaAs-detector. The filtering of the heat radiation in the upper joining partner is taken into account by calibrating the mea surement system. By this, the measured temperature signal represents the temperature in the joining zone. A correlation is found between the measured temperature and the resulting joint strength. Moreover, high joint strengths are also seen for welds with short welding times, as far as the temperature is sufficiently high. With this knowledge, a process window can be derived easily in order to produce welds with high strength and short welding times.
Quality and reliability are of the utmost importance for manufacturing in the optical and medical industries. Absorber-free laser transmission welding enables the precise joining of identical polymers without additives or adhesives and is well-suited to meet the demands of the aforementioned industries. To attain sufficient absorption of laser energy without absorbent additives, thulium fiber lasers, which emit in the polymers’ intrinsic absorption spectrum, are used. Focusing the laser beam with a high numerical aperture provides significant intensity gradients inside the workpiece and enables selective fusing of the internal joining zone without affecting the surface of the device. Because seam size and position are crucial, the high-quality requirements demand internal weld seam monitoring. In this work, we propose a novel method to determine weld seam location and size using optical coherence tomography. Changes in optical material properties because of melting and re-solidification during welding allow for weld seam differentiation from the injection-molded base material. Automatic processing of the optical coherence tomography data enables the identification and measurement of the weld seam geometry. The results from our technique are consistent with microscopic images of microtome sections and demonstrate that weld seam localization in polyamide 6 is possible with an accuracy better than a tenth of a millimeter.
Predicting the core temperature during welding is an ambitious aim in many research works. In this work, a 3D-scanner with integrated pyrometer is characterized and used to measure the temperature during quasi-simultaneous laser transmission welding of polyamide 6. However, due to welding in an overlap configuration, the heat radiation emitted from the joining zone of a laser transmission weld has to pass through the upper polymer, which is itself a semi-transparent emitter. Therefore, the spectral filtering of the heat radiation in the upper polymer is taken into account by calibrating the pyrometer for the measurement task. Thermal process simulations are performed to compare the temperature field with the measured temperature signal. The absorption coefficients of the polymers are measured, in order to get precise results from the computation. The temperature signals during welding are in good agreement with the computed mean temperature inside the detection spot, located in the joining area. This is also true for varying laser power, laser beam diameter and the carbon black content in the lower polymer. Both, the computed mean temperature and the temperature signal are representing the core temperature. In order to evaluate the spatial sensitivity of the measurement system, the emitted heat radiation from both polymers is calculated on basis of the computed temperature field. Hereby it is found, that more than 90 percent of the detected heat radiation comes from the joining area, which is a crucial information for contact-free temperature measurement tasks on semi-transparent polymers.
Laser transmission welding is a well-known joining technology for thermoplastics, providing reliable and hermetical sealing without adhesives or particle formation. The main advantages of laser-based energy input - high precision, no additional adhesive and no particle emission - are essential for medical and optical applications. To obtain sufficient absorption in visually transparent polymers, thulium fibre lasers emitting in the polymers’ intrinsic absorption spectrum are used. Optics with high numerical aperture provide large intensity gradients inside the specimen, enabling selective fusing in the joining zone. Although the basic feasibility has already been demonstrated, the welding process lacks stability and productivity.
Aim of this work is the determination of optimized settings for a fast and reliable welding process. Thus, the interplay of process parameters as well as their impact on the seam are analysed by thermal simulations. Calculated settings are verified by welding tests with COC, PA6 and PETG, using a fixed-focus optics and a 3D laser scanner with up to 200 mm/s feed rate.
Thermo-mechanical simulation offers great opportunities to optimize welding processes of plastics. For realistic simulation, the temperature dependent mechanical properties need to be implemented from ambient temperature to temperatures above the flow temperature. Standard test methods are insufficient for characterization in the entire temperature range because close to the flow temperature the material is too soft for tensile tests and too stiff for rheometry. Therefore, an optimization strategy is developed, that determines unknown material parameters by testing in welding simulations. The unknown parameters are iteratively adjusted to minimize the mismatch between computed and measured set-paths. Thus, important process characteristics are calculated realistically, enabling the computer aided assessment of the weld quality.