1) Diffractive Beam Shaping

Diffractive optical elements are used in two different kind of applications within laser welding of plastics:

A. Beam shaping of intensity profile while contour- or quasi-simultaneous welding. With a modified beam profile the energy supply can be adapted to the movement. Thus the heat affected zone may be optimized.

B. Transformation of complete contours for simultaneous welding. Diffractive optical elements allow customized contour shaping for one-shot welding processes.

spie.org/PWL/conferencedetails/laser-micro-nanoprocessing,
Paper Number 9351-35

2) Laser Hybrid Joining

The trend towards lightweight construction increasingly demands the usage of polymer-metal combinations. Different methods of metal structuring and joining techniques will be presented. Extensive joining tests demonstrate that joint-strengths can reach strengths of the base material.