Diffractive beam shaping for enhanced laser polymer welding

J. Rauschenberger; Daniel Vogler; C. Raab; U. Gubler

doi:10.1117/12.2080273

12 March 2015 Diffractive beam shaping for enhanced laser polymer welding

J. Rauschenberger, Daniel Vogler, C. Raab, U. Gubler

Proceedings Volume 9351, Laser-based Micro- and Nanoprocessing IX; 935110 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2080273
Event: SPIE LASE, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Laser welding of polymers increasingly finds application in a large number of industries such as medical technology, automotive, consumer electronics, textiles or packaging. More and more, it replaces other welding technologies for polymers, e. g. hot-plate, vibration or ultrasonic welding. At the same rate, demands on the quality of the weld, the flexibility of the production system and on processing speed have increased.

Traditionally, diode lasers were employed for plastic welding with flat-top beam profiles. With the advent of fiber lasers with excellent beam quality, the possibility to modify and optimize the beam profile by beam-shaping elements has opened.

Diffractive optical elements (DOE) can play a crucial role in optimizing the laser intensity profile towards the optimal M-shape beam for enhanced weld seam quality. We present results on significantly improved weld seam width constancy and enlarged process windows compared to Gaussian or flat-top beam profiles. Configurations in which the laser beam diameter and shape can be adapted and optimized without changing or aligning the laser, fiber-optic cable or optical head are shown.

Citation Download Citation

J. Rauschenberger, Daniel Vogler, C. Raab, and U. Gubler "Diffractive beam shaping for enhanced laser polymer welding", Proc. SPIE 9351, Laser-based Micro- and Nanoprocessing IX, 935110 (12 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2080273

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