MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION
Product failures, scrap, and recalls can have a devastating impact on a manufacturer’s reputation and bottom line. While it’s a big industry, it can also become small quickly. If you get a reputation for poor quality, business suffers.
Tracking and solving manufacturing quality problems — and continuous improvement — are crucial in every industry, but the cost of quality is not always so easy to assess. Recalls themselves are expensive., In one recent study by the Consumer Brands Association, 81% of companies dealing with recalls said the consequences were significant or catastrophic. Beyond the hard costs of a recall, it’s hard to put numbers on customer dissatisfaction and shareholder confidence, but a damaged reputation can last a lifetime.
Everyone in the industry wants to maintain high quality standards. Manufacturers do their best to develop processes that meet product quality specifications and industry regulations. At the same time, however, they need to keep production lines as efficient as possible to reduce downtime, changeover, and loss of productivity.
Laser material processing technologies have proven to be true allies for manufacturers, helping them achieve quality without compromising on production cost and speed.
Laser Processing Technologies in Manufacturing
It’s not hyperbole to say that laser technology has changed the manufacturing industry. Lasers have revolutionized many areas of the manufacturing process, allowing for precision manufacturing. Here are just a few ways lasers have positively impacted manufacturers.
- Laser marking: Laser marking generates identifiers directly on parts to add traceability for various metrics.
- Laser cleaning: Laser cleaning removes various contaminants such as coatings, rust, oxide, dust, and electrolytes to prepare parts for subsequent operations.
- Laser texturing: Laser texturing modifies the surface roughness and texture to generate desirable surface properties before other operations.
- Laser welding: Laser welding melts metals to join surfaces together.
- Laser heat treatments: Lasers heat metal surfaces to improve oxidation resistance, wear and corrosion resistance, and extend service time.
- Laser cutting: Lasers perform accurate and repeatable cuts without mechanical stress.
Benefits of Laser Technology
Laser technology today has taken significant leaps from even just a few years ago. Now, advanced laser beams and custom applications let manufacturers complete complex processes faster and more efficiently.
Here are a few of the key benefits.
1. Precision
Parts that demand strict manufacturing tolerances need high-precision tools. This precision has traditionally been a challenge, especially for CNC machines. Over time, stress and wear impact accuracy in minute ways that may not be noticeable until it becomes a problem. Yet, even when components are off at microscopic levels, parts can be out of compliance with manufacturing specs.
This precision is where lasers excel. You get consistent, highly accurate performance for several reasons, including:
No contact
With lasers, there is mechanical wear on the tool. This eliminates the stress and wear on the tools used to process the part, which deteriorates quality over time, impacts downtime, and requires additional maintenance.
Optical tools
Optical toolshave no heavy mechanical parts that can induce large imprecisions. Laser scan heads are equipped with electromagnetic motors that are among the most precise types of motorized tools.
Spot size
Lasers can process materials with micron precision. The focal point where the laser beam hits the surface is often 50-micron in size (or smaller). This allows high-resolution surface processing with incredible accuracy.
2. Repeatability
Precision alone is not enough, however. Your processes have to have high repeatability, especially in high-volume productions, to ensure consistent quality. Lasers offer great repeatability for several significant reasons:
Reduced Wear
Because laser systems are contactless, this eliminates wear and tear on machines. In contact tools, wear and tear gradually diminishes quality over time and requires frequent maintenance.
Technology Made for Automation
Lasers are managed by computers and require only minimal mechanical movements. They are designed to be automated. Compared to other technologies, downtime for maintenance is minimal.
3. Flexibility
Laser technology is highly agile to meet the evolving quality needs of manufacturers while saving time and money.
Lasers include a variety of optical configurations which can be fine-tuned for each application. Changes are handled with software, so changes to configurations are easy to implement. Changeovers or adaptations are fast.
Laser programming can be adapted to accommodate different shapes, depths, lengths, speeds, and more. These adjustments may not be possible on machines that are not equipped with laser technology or require extensive manual changeover or even retooling to accommodate changes.
Integrations are flexible as well. Robots, conveyors, and table-top laser solutions are available to fit machine installations or floor space limitations.
Applications Where Quality is Improved – Examples
Laser technology has dramatically improved quality and efficiency in manufacturers and parts suppliers. This has been especially evident in the automotive industry where lasers are used in nearly every stage of the manufacturing process, but quality improvements are also seen across the manufacturing industry at large.
Here are a few specific examples that show how precision, repeatability, and flexibility have made a difference.
Replace Part Masking with Laser Cleaning
Part masking is labor-intensive and prone to human error. This creates quality issues while also increasing scrap, rework, and costs. It can show down the entire coating process and lead to poor-quality finishes.
Localized laser cleaning has been used to replace part masking. Manufacturers can coat an entire surface and clean the desired area instead of masking the areas that need to be protected from the coating. Not only does this save time, but it cleans parts precisely.
Laser cleaning simply removes contaminants from a specific area while leaving other areas untouched. The process is fast and fully automated, preventing manual errors while speeding up the process.
Laser ablation will remove rusts, oils, grease, paints, and oxides with little to no impact on the underlying material. Laser cleaning helps in creating more durable welds by completely removing contaminants from surfaces and joints.
Localized Texturing to Replace Abrasive Blasting
Abrasive blasting methods such as grit blasting and shotblasting are very efficient, but they are imprecise and can damage surfaces. By comparison, laser texturing is a highly controlled process that allows texturing of precise areas without damaging surfaces.
For example, it is used to prepare surfaces for coatings such as thermal spray coating. While grit blasting can damage the surface by creating microcracks and inclusions, laser texturing prevents the formation of cracks by etching specific patterns that strengthen the surface.
Blasting methods can also be cost-prohibitive, especially for large manufacturing operations. Blasting media also needs to be recycled and replaced. Laser texturing can accomplish the same goals by creating micropatterns on surfaces with micrometer precision and accurate repeatability. This increases surface adherence, wettability, thermal conductivity, and friction.
Post-Treatment Resistant Markings
Ensuring transparency and accountability through the supply chain is essential. Manufacturers today need to document each component both for compliance and safety requirements.
Part traceability and quality go hand in hand. In the last decades, OEMs have stepped up their game when it comes to traceability requirements to better manage recalls and product counterfeiting.
Cradle-to-grave traceability demands manufacturers implement traceability as soon as parts are created, so they can accurately be tracked throughout the manufacturing process and afterward.
Manufacturers using laser marking can reduce costs for die or special treatments for marking to reduce costs while improving quality and traceability. Laser marking can also generate marks that survive exceptional wear, including shotblasting or e-coating that might otherwise erase product identification. Laser marking won’t peel off or be damaged in transport or due to environmental conditions.
Unlike some other marketing procedures, laser marking also does not require additional pre or post-treatment.
Laser Welding to Replace Ultrasonic Wire Bonding
Laser welding has become an alternative to ultrasonic wire bonding required to make the connections between batteries and busbars in battery manufacturing.
Ultrasonic bonding is a slow process that requires multiple machines and significant floor space to meet production requirements. Lasers have been used for some time for cleaning and preparing surfaces for ultrasonic wire bonding, which requires a clean surface without contaminants to form a tight bond. This has become a standard solution to avoid abrasion that can damage battery components.
However, ultrasonic bonding has limitations. For example, it can only be used for lap joins. Welds cannot be made to fit into small spaces, limiting battery design. Many manufacturers are now replacing ultrasonic bonding with laser welding in newer designs.
Laser welding can speed up the process and minimize the footprint by replacing dozens of machines with a single one. Laser welding can work across varying quality surfaces, does not require substantial force to clamp parts together during the process, and offers minimal heat-affected zones.
Laser welding helps improve the quality of the welds by generating fewer failure points and less rework.
Worry Less about Manufacturing Quality
Laser technology has advanced dramatically over the past few years and innovation continues to change the manufacturing industry. With laser tech, manufacturers can worry less about quality problems that occur with traditional technologies.
Lasers produce less downtime, less rework, and better adaptability to maintain quality and repeatability.