Automobile manufacturing involves many related industries. It is a very large system engineering that requires the cooperation of a series of technologies. Automobile manufacturing is also an industry with a high concentration of new technologies, and laser technology is one of them. Laser technology, like the current fiber laser marking machine, laser welding machine, and laser cutting machine, involves many aspects of current automobile manufacturing. Laser technology is gradually promoting the current automobile manufacturing industry with its high energy, high precision, and high adaptability. rapid development. No matter from the technical point of view or economic point of view, laser welding, laser cutting, and laser marking technologies are very effective processing methods, and their advantages are very obvious.
The main applications of laser equipment in the automotive industry:
1. Laser marking machine
A modern compact car is assembled from more than 10,000 components made of a wide variety of materials, including steel, light alloys, plastics, composites, natural fibers, and more. Due to the requirements of comprehensive information management and quality traceability in the automotive industry, both automobile manufacturers and auto parts companies need to code on the entire vehicle and key components to give the vehicle and parts a unique identity. These markings must outlive the life of the car and not fade even when exposed to oil, fuel or high temperatures.
In the production of automobiles and parts, the establishment of identity is the basis of quality traceability and recall. It is very important to establish the identity of automobiles and parts through marking. Focusing on the application of lasers on auto parts, it is mainly to mark the two-dimensional code on the part body, and attach the unique information of the product identity to the surface of the part through the two-dimensional code. Through the acquisition equipment, the whole life cycle management of the part can be realized, and at the same time Data association with the VIN number of the vehicle can be carried out to realize the traceability of the vehicle and parts. The key components that need to be traced include: engine assembly, gearbox assembly, steering assembly, brake assembly, body, frame, electronic appliances, etc.
Laser marking has been more and more widely used due to its high efficiency and adaptability. Laser marking is a marking method that uses a high-energy-density laser to locally irradiate the workpiece to vaporize the surface material or undergo a chemical reaction of color change, thereby leaving a mark. The feature of laser marking is non-contact processing, which can be marked on any special-shaped surface without deformation and internal stress of the workpiece. Modern automotive parts use a variety of materials, including metal, plastic, glass, ceramics, wood and leather, and lasers can be used to mark the surface of all these materials.
2.Laser Cleaning Machine
Laser cleaning technology is a cleaning solution that uses high-frequency short-pulse laser as the working medium. The high-energy beam of specific wavelength is absorbed by the rust layer, paint layer, and pollution layer to form a rapidly expanding plasma (highly ionized unstable gas), and at the same time generate shock waves, which make the pollutants into fragments and be removed.
Compared with traditional cleaning technology, laser cleaning technology has unique advantages, which constantly drives the rapid development of laser cleaning market. Traditional cleaning techniques such as: dry ice cleaning, sandblasting cleaning, chemical substance cleaning, etc., have the disadvantages of roughness, abrasiveness, high labor intensity, low efficiency, low safety factor, high cost, etc., which not only pollute the environment, but also may The human body is harmful and potentially dangerous, and laser cleaning technology, as a non-contact and non-abrasive cleaning process, can accurately control the depth and width of cleaning, and can effectively remove the rust, oil, and paint layers on the metal surface. , oxide layer, etc. can achieve perfect cleaning.
With the continuous growth of the population and the continuous expansion of the middle class, further driving the development of the automobile manufacturing industry. Today's cars are not only required to be practical, but also economical and beautiful. Updates are getting faster and faster. Traditional cleaning methods are difficult to meet the needs of fine cleaning, environmental cleaning, and low-cost cleaning in the modern automobile manufacturing industry.
In the novel cleaning process adopted by the continuous innovation in the automobile process, the laser cleaning technology uses the characteristics of automatic cleaning, selective removal and high cleaning efficiency to clean various parts on the car, such as: car hubs, brake pads, hoods, engines, etc. , for surface rust removal, paint removal, oxidation layer removal, oil removal, etc., with powerful functions. Using laser cleaning technology to partially clean the car hood is a perfect alternative to traditional surface cleaning. Traditional cleaning methods cannot accurately clean the surface, so most of the auto parts now use laser cleaning. And the laser cleaning machine can also be equipped with robots or fixtures to clean the surface of the workpiece in an automated way.
The laser cleaning machine can also perform precise and precise cleaning on the metal parts before welding or after welding. The laser cleaning is very gentle, without consumables, and does not damage the surface of the substrate. It can help the metal parts of the car to obtain strong, no voids and micro cracks. It can effectively improve the welding quality of automobile products, and can also perform precise and precise cleaning on designated areas of other automobile parts.
In addition, the operation of the laser cleaning machine is very simple, even a novice can quickly learn to use it after simple operation training.
3. Laser Welding Machine
Laser welding has become one of the important methods in automobile manufacturing due to its advantages of high energy density, small deformation, narrow heat-affected zone, high welding speed, easy automatic control, and no follow-up processing. In European and American countries where the automobile industry is extremely developed, laser welding has become a standard process in the most advanced automobile manufacturing process.
Lasers have been used in the welding of auto parts and even complete vehicles for more than 20 years. Laser welding is widely used in: automotive gears (including conjoined gears), automotive transmissions, oil filters, automotive air-conditioning pulleys, hydraulic tappets , ABS battery valves, airbag igniters, lithium batteries, fuel injectors, lights, sensors and other components. Laser welding of car body parts such as roofs, doors, trunks, and engine roofs is also widely used.
There are hundreds of thousands of parts in the body and chassis of a car. How to connect them together has a direct impact on the rigidity of the vehicle body. Laser welding can weld almost all metal materials of different thicknesses, grades, types and grades. Connected together, fine seamless welding improves the stability and safety of the car, while improving production efficiency and quality, it also increases the flexibility of car design and material selection.
The advantage of welding with laser technology is that
Extremely high welding speed, stable welding quality, high welding precision, small thermal deformation of materials, and easy integration into automated operating systems. It is an advanced welding method that is widely used in modern automobile industry production and has an excellent reputation.
The main advantages of laser welding are:
Easy to control and fast;
High-quality and high-strength welds can be obtained without welding wire;
Large weld depth-to-width ratio, bright and beautiful;
High precision, strong repeatability, high yield;
Due to the fast welding speed, the heat conduction effect is small, and the thermal deformation is extremely small;
Non-contact processing, no mechanical stress;
No consumables are needed, and the cost of use is low.
Experiments have shown that laser has unique advantages in welding of automobile body, pipe welding, automobile battery welding and instrument panel plastic welding, no matter in terms of welding strength, welding precision and speed. The strength of the body with laser welding can be increased by more than 30%, which greatly improves the safety performance of the car; the use of laser-welded auto parts can effectively reduce the volume of parts, which is in line with the development trend of miniaturization of parts.
4. Laser Cutting Machine
Laser cutting is one of the most frequently used laser applications in the automotive industry.
At present, the inner wall, bottom plate and column of the car door of automobile manufacturing have the laser cutting technology applied to the present.
Automobile manufacturers take advantage of the many advantages of laser cutting when processing different workpieces for automobiles, such as high cutting edge quality, low heat input, and high processing speed. Auto parts and materials that contain multiple metals, such as airbag fabrics and composite materials used in car interiors, are cut using lasers. As a flexible processing tool, lasers can be easily integrated into robots and other automation devices, and provide solutions for the cutting of various automated parts and materials.
Fiber lasers and CO2 lasers can be combined with standardized 2D and 3D cutting systems to cut mild steel, stainless steel, aluminum and other metals.
Laser technology can be used to cut different steel plates and aluminum plates into different sizes and shapes, and then splice them together according to specific design needs. Compared with the previous processing method, it not only improves the processing efficiency, but also has a lot of room for the flexibility of processing design. The process design is also leaner, and the utilization rate of materials is also effectively improved.
The blanking and trimming of large automotive panels often requires a 3D laser cutting machine. In addition, the current platformization of automobile manufacturing is intensifying, which puts forward higher requirements for the flexibility of the production line. Using 3D laser cutting only needs to adapt the laser processing program after the model is changed, and the tooling is simple, which greatly shortens the construction period. Compared with the use of mold manufacturing Costs have dropped significantly. In addition, the application of high-strength steel in automobiles is increasing. After hot forming, the stamping process is no longer suitable for this kind of steel. The cutting of its contour and hole has promoted the demand for laser cutting.
Automobile body materials use a lot of high-strength steel. If you use mechanical cutting, the tool wear will be extremely serious; if you use stamping cutting, it will wear the abrasive, and the cutting quality will gradually decrease with the wear of the abrasive; laser cutting is a good solution Overcoming these problems, it can work continuously for a long time, and greatly reduces the production preparation cycle. The combination of laser cutting technology and numerical control technology has greatly improved the utilization efficiency of the equipment. It only needs to import the graphics to be cut into the numerical control system, and can cut the steel required by different parts without opening molds separately. It provides a Great conveniencefor the flexible solution of production workshop. .
Conculsion
Laser technology plays an important role in the production and processing of the automobile manufacturing industry. According to industry analysis, as the relationship between laser technology and the current automobile manufacturing industry continues to deepen, the application of laser technology in the field of automobile manufacturing will involve more.
