Joining device and joining method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11612955-B2
Application number	US-202017120542-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2020
Priority date	Apr 22, 2015
Publication date	Mar 28, 2023
Grant date	Mar 28, 2023

Abstract

A joining device and method for laser-based joining of two components includes a first laser radiation source, a first radiation guide connected to the first radiation source to couple first laser radiation into the first radiation guide, a second laser radiation source, at least one second radiation guide connected to the second radiation source to couple second laser radiation into the second radiation guide, and a focusing device coupled to the laser radiations and focusing them at a distance from each other into a joining zone of the components. To reduce installation effort, the focusing device focuses the first and second laser radiations through a common beam path and a coupling device is connected on its input side to the first and second radiation guides and on its output side to the focusing device. The coupling device couples the first and second laser radiations into the common beam path.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for joining two components by laser radiation, the two components disposed with respect to one another to define a joining zone for joining the two components together, the method comprising:
delivering a laser spot of a first laser radiation into the joining zone of the two components so that a material bonding of the two components is achieved in an area of the laser spot of the first laser radiation by heat input;
delivering at least one laser spot of a second laser radiation into the joining zone of the two components upstream of the laser spot of the first laser radiation in a joining direction to effect a joining pretreatment on at least one of the two components in the joining zone in an area of the at least one laser spot; and
prior to delivering the laser spot of the first laser radiation and the at least one laser spot of the second laser radiation, guiding the first laser radiation and the second laser radiation through a coupling device having a multi-core fiber for guiding the first laser radiation and the second laser radiation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first laser radiation is emitted from a first laser radiation source and the second laser radiation is emitted from a second laser radiation source, the method further comprising:
guiding the first laser radiation emitted from the first laser radiation source in a first radiation guide to an input side of the coupling device; and
guiding the second laser radiation emitted from the second laser radiation source in at least one second radiation guide to an input side of the coupling device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the multi-core fiber of the coupling device has a number of fiber cores corresponding to a sum of a number of the first radiation guide and the at least one second radiation guide, and the coupling device is configured such that the fiber cores extend parallel to one another.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first radiation guide has a first radiation outlet and the at least one second radiation guide has a second radiation outlet, further comprising:
focusing first laser radiation emitted from the coupling device into the laser spot; and
focusing second laser radiation emitted from the coupling device into the at least one laser spot, wherein the fiber cores are configured to be respectively coupled to:
one of the first radiation outlet and the at least one second radiation outlet, and
a focusing device that configured to perform the focusing of the first and second laser radiation and configured such that the focusing device focuses each of the first and second laser radiations at a distance from each other into the joining zone of the two components.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising providing at least one of the first laser radiation source and the second laser radiation source.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the power configuration of the second laser radiation source is configured to be different from the power configuration of the first laser radiation source.

7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising providing at least one of the first radiation guide and the at least one second radiation guide.

8. The method of claim 2 , further comprising generating the first laser radiation with the first laser radiation source and generating the second laser radiation with the second laser radiation source.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a surface pretreatment as the joining pretreatment on the at least one of the two components in the joining zone by the at least one laser spot of the second laser radiation.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the two components comprises a coating in the joining zone, and which further comprises performing at least one of ablation and melting of the coating on the at least one of the two components in the joining zone as the surface pretreatment by the at least one laser spot of the second laser radiation.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the multi-core fiber of the coupling device.

Assignees

• Volkswagen Ag
• Ipg Laser Gmbh

Inventors

• Hammer Thorge
• Reimann Wilfried
• Shcherbakov Eugene

Classifications

• B23K2101/34

  Coated articles {; Surface treated articles} · CPC title

• B23K26/354

  by melting · CPC title

• B23K26/24 Primary

  Seam welding · CPC title

• B23K26/60

  Preliminary treatment · CPC title

• B23K2103/08

  Non-ferrous metals or alloys · CPC title