Laser welding Deliver Eze parcelbox zincanneal
Laser welding Deliver Eze parcelbox zincanneal

Why buy from laser-welder.com. au?

We are the leader in high powered laser welders:

  • We don’t just sell laser welders. We use lasers every day and are specialists in fibre lasers and laser welders.
  • Our products are carefully selected based on our experience. Avoid the learning curve!
  • Our prices are the best on the market.
  • Money back guarantee if our units don’t do what we promise.
  • Local support. We talk your language (in more ways than one).
  • Practical experience and guidance on joint design, settings and safety.
  • Free delivery in Melbourne. Low cost delivery to other locations.

Why laser welding beats TIG and MIG

Lasers weld at light speed, while making your wallet heavier!

Laser welding benefits

  • Massive cost savings in production.  Less labour cost. less consumables.
  • ‎Typcially 4 to 6 times faster than TIG.
  • 4 to 6 time$ cheaper!!
  • Much higher throughput and output per worker.
  • No need for highly skilled TIG welding gods. Cheaper workers can be used.
  • Less heat affected zone, discolouration and no rework/finishing in most cases.
  • Few if any sparks or spatter and less fire risk.
  • Far less consumables and gas consumption due to quicker welding.
  • No need to remove galvanising before welding. The laser welder removes what it needs.
  • Quick return on investment, then straight profit.
Deliver eze boxes fast laser weld
Deliver eze boxes fast laser weld

Deliver-Eze parcel mailbox case study

Deliver-Eze parcel letterboxes was looking for a seamless, neat and low cost way of assembling the body for their Mosman Pillar parcel box. By adopting laser seam welding of the Galvanneal (Zincanneal) body they could match the buy price from China while improving quality, avoiding the headaches, and enabling certification as Australian Made. The weld quality was so good they were able to powder coat them straight after welding. In addition the laser removes the galvanizing only where the weld will be, removing the need to grind the galvanising off, while preserving the corrosion resistance.

Stainless steel tank case study

A sheet metal fabricator was finding an order for stainless steel liquid tanks was taking too long to produce, with each one taking an hour to TIG weld. They asked us to demonstrate what laser welding could do. We arrived at a good setup after a few minutes of trialling, and our unskilled pencil-pushing engineer welded the tank in one sixth (6 times faster!!) of the time their highly skilled TIG welder was taking. In addition, we used far less argon shielding gas and fused the corners with no filler required. Our welds also had less stain. The customer was very happy!

Stainless fusion welded by laser
Stainless fusion welded by laser
stainless fusion laser weld lap joint 1mm
stainless fusion laser weld lap joint 1mm

What is a laser welding machine?

A laser welding machine (simply referred to as a laser welder) uses focused light to heat materials to the melting point, so they can fuse or weld together. This can be done by fusion, where no filler wire is added, or if the gap between the materials being welded is more than about 0.3mm a filler wire is recommended. This filler wire must be larger than the gap.

HOW MUCH cost saving from laser welding?

For a sheet metal factory welding sheet metal (0.5 up to 3mm) with TIG, laser welding should reduce the time per job by around 70% (depending on the amount of wasted time overhead).  This reduces the labour cost per job by around 70%.

Weld appearance and staining are also improved, usually avoiding the need for TIG brushing, grinding, etc.  This can be a massive saving in itself, and an improvement in your professional image with the customer.

In addition, you will use around 70% less argon per job.  The laser welder will use slightly more welding tips and may need a new protective lense every few days (more if welding spangle gal), but we sell these for around $10 each, which is negligible compared to the other cost savings.

How is the laser controlled?

The light is directed by the lens and moveable mirror/s which are computer controlled with precise control of the light path. This allows any the laser beam to trace any shape from a pin point up to a 5mm circle, oval, hourglass, triangle, etc., at speeds up to 50Hz or even more. Some units on the market are more basic than this.

Double wobble modes
Double wobble modes

LASER is an abbreviation for Light Amplification by Stimulation of Emitted Radiation. Lasers are traditionally based on resonance (bouncing back and forth in unison) of the light in a chamber (such as a glass tube of CO2 gas), then bursting out once the energy reaches a certain level. This output is a coherent electromagnetic field where the waves all have the same frequency and phase, which is a little unusual in nature.

Fibre lasers (fiber in the USA of course) are a novel invention where the light is controlled and pumped, or forced to resonate, by the refractive index of the glass fibres that carry the laser light to their end use. The inner glass fibre is coated in one or more layers of glass with different refractive indicies. Together with Bragg grating/s and a partially reflective section, the outer layers then aid the reflection/capture and emission of light at a certain frequency, in a resonant manner. Fibre lasers have high efficiency with high power output and reliability. This means far less power consumption than most other types of lasers.

 

CW continuous wave vs pulsed

All our laser welders are fibre laser based due to their excellent performance to cost ratio, high efficiency and high power output. Most of our laser welders use continuous wave, meaning the laser is a continuous beam, which works well for steel and stainless steel.

Stainless steel 3mm laser welded
Stainless steel 3mm laser welded
Aluminium 2mm laser welded
Aluminium 2mm laser welded

Aluminium laser welding vs steel and stainless

Note that our new lightweight portable laser uses a newer technology, based on a 960nm internal wavelength with a selectable pulsed mode. This has higher internal efficiency and an advantage for welding aluminium, where the high power pulse mode breaks through the reflective surface and initiates a molten pool for welding. 

Fiber laser welders vs CO2 vs diode lasers

Different types of lasers produce different frequencies (or wavelengths if you prefer) of electromagnetic radiation. These are colours of light, but most of the colours fall outside the narrow range our eyes can see, so are invisible (see our section on laser safety).
The most common processes and wavelengths are:

Fibre lasers: Usually 1064nm to 1075nm wavelength. Invisible. Near infrared, not far from visible red. Great for welding steel and stainless steel. Also can weld Aluminium. High powers available. Very good performance to cost ratio.

Diode lasers: A huge range of wavelengths depending on chemistry. Range from UV to visible to IR. 450nm (blue and visible) looks promising for copper welding. Copper and other metals absorb shorter wavelengths (UV to blue range) more than IR. However powerful diode lasers are not commercially available yet. Maybe in the future this will be a nice technology.

CO2 lasers (CO2 gas based): 10,600 nm wavelength (ten times a fibre laser’s wavelength) Invisible. Known as far infrared. Mostly reflected by metals, so poor for welding. Good for engraving wood and organic materials.

IPG laser welder source vs others

IPG is well known as the mainstream leader in lasers, founded by Valentin Gapontsev, a Russian scientist and now based in the USA. There are other top tier niche brands such as Coherent, Jenoptik, Trumpf, Han’s and Corona, but not at an affordable commercial level.

If budget is no problem we can supply IPG.  However for most commercial enterprises value is more important, and our laser source is much better value than IPG’s.

IPG vs laser welder SS316 2mm
IPG vs laser welder SS316 2mm

Where are most lasers made?

Europe and North America both have active laser industries and are the leaders in new developments.  The majority of laser sources and laser welders are made in China due to its active laser industry, and their low cost structures allowing a similar product at a much lower cost.  We source our components from both regions, cherry picking to create our industry leading machines.

Raycus rear connectors not safe
Raycus rear connectors not safe

Some lasers are not electrically safe.

We have selected lasers which best meet Australia’s basic electrical safety standard, AS3820. Some Chinese laser sources DO NOT meet AS3820, such as water cooling connectors situated directly above mains voltage. These non-compliant lasers include Raycus sources, which is the most popular brand in China.

How much does an IPG laser welder cost?

IPG’s laser welders cost more than double our models

We evaluated a $40,000 IPG 1500W continuous wave laser welder in late 2021 to help decide our current model range. In summary, it was a nice machine, but we could see no benefit over our final range. The negative for this IPG unit was that the welding head only had a circle mode, meaning the laser could only trace a circle rather than other shapes for the laser trace. Where possible, our welders have double wobble allowing different trace shapes (hourglass for example) to be quickly selected, to suit different situations.
We recently delivered a 1500W welder to a customer who said he tried an IPG but much preferred ours.  Not to mention he could buy two systems from laser-welder.com.au for the cost of one IPG laser.

IPG 1500W laser source chiller
IPG 1500W laser source chiller
Laser welder better than IPG zincanneal lap corner joint
Laser welder better than IPG zincanneal lap corner joint
IPG 1500W stainless laser weld sample
IPG 1500W stainless laser weld sample
IPG 1500W zincanneal butt lap welds
IPG 1500W zincanneal butt lap welds

IPG lightweld 1500 laser welder cost vs. Lightwelder15

IPG’s cheapest Lightweld 1500 variant costs US$22,900 as of 23 April 202 plus a wire feeder for US$1,900 PLUS conversion to AU$, PLUS freight and duty. This ends up being far more than double the price of our equivalent Lightwelder15.  It is similar in specification to our Lightwelder15, but inferior(!)

Based on testing, our unit is actually BETTER than IPG’s.  On IPG’s Youtube video showing their the IPG technician welding 2mm aluminium, I clock their welding speed at approx. 7mm/s with Lightwelder 1500W.  In contrast, our Lightwelder15 on 3mm aluminium (50% thicker again) clocks in at 12mm/s, and with full penetration, melting the back face and passing a severe bend test. Refer the photo in the image gallery.  And that was only our first trial, straight out of the box.  There is much more development left if this unit, and the speeds will improve as we go.

The cheapest laser welders

Laser-welder.com.au products are Australian-based and sensational value, half the cost of IPG laser welders!
Ours are cheaper than importing a laser welding machine from overseas. Importing runs the risk of being scammed, substitution, dead on arrival, shipping damage, wrong spec, no training in maintenance, use and safety, not to mention warranty support!

Custom depth brick parcelbox laser welded
Custom depth brick parcelbox laser welded

Why buy from laser-welder.com. au

Laser-welder is the only seller we know of that actually uses lasers in our production! Every other company we know of is a sales organisation and probably has far less idea of how to set up or weld with them, or the practical aspects. Based on our manufacturing experience with laser welders we can separate marketing hype from fact and provide the best solution for our customers.

Portable laser welders

We offer two types of portable laser welders.

Compact laser welder

The first type is not truly portable, but is smaller than traditonal hand held laser welders. We reduced the size from Generation 4 to our new Generation 5 handheld laser welder with water cooling.  The built-in high performance water chiller and our high efficiency laser source allow them to run with 100% duty cycle up to 40 degrees C. Despite being smaller than before, it is not the most portable option. That honour falls on our air cooled versions.

Red and black compact laser welder
Our 2024 model laser welder
Lightweld-1500-laser-hand-piece-cable

Air cooled laser welder

Our Lightwelder15 has fifteen hundred Watts of output power and is very similar to IPG’s Lightweld 1500. Lightwelder15 is only 63kg and 640x310x620mm high, so it can fit in a car or ute easily. It is rated at 20A 240V, but could actually be run from 16A 240V single phase power if the power was limited to 85% or so, or you don’t mind the breaker tripping when the current is exceeded.  (Note that this is not allowed under Australian Standards).

Disadvantages of CNC laser welding by Trumpf and Amada including robot welding

Until the last few years laser welders were large units, more like massive jewellery welders, with CNC/robotic control options. Some companies purchased these CNC/robotic units and found the jigging accuracy required was not practical. Lasers are highly precise devices, but if pre-programmed that means the weld joint must be exactly where it’s meant to be or the weld will be in the wrong place, and hence not actually a weld… In practice, a hand held laser welder allows a human (still much smarter and more adaptable than a robot, thankfully) to control the laser weld path to achieve the desired weld. Because of this, a hand held laser welding machine is the best solution for most tasks, and can do pretty much anything.

What makes a good weld?

During my Christmas holidays from university I worked in the metallurgical laboratory at the Ordnance Factory at Bendigo, now owned by Thales, the production site for the world-renowned Bushmaster military vehicle. I spent many hours sectioning, sanding and acid etching weld samples, and doing Vickers or Brinell hardness and Charpy/Izod tests to confirm the metallurgical properties and weld quality. These were mainly for submerged arc welds on very thick steel plates.  In contrast, laser welding is best for thin plates and sheet metal.  On thinner materials very fast welding is possible.  However, no matter the thickness of material, the elements of a good weld, whether stick, TIG, MIG or laser are the same:

  • Adequate penetration
  • Correct weld size
  • Minimal undercutting
  • Metallurgical properties of the finished part.
  • Small heat affected zone (HAZ)
  • Minimal weld stain
  • Minimal distortion
  • Minimal griding/rework required
  • Must be economic

LASER WELDING IS SUPERIOR TO OTHER WELDING METHODS, FOR ALL OF THESE KEY CRITERIA.

12mm plate weld cross section etched
12mm plate weld cross section etched
laser butt weld like new
laser butt weld like new

Is laser welding as strong as MIG or TIG?

Yes. By slowing the welding speed, laser welding can give as much penetration or weld strength as you need for the job at hand, up to 3mm or so for a 1500W laser on stainless. However it can also do a very quick seam weld where maximum penetration is not required. Laser welding beats TIG, MIG and stick hands down for speed, low heat input, low distortion, low staining, and customer-ready welds without expensive grinding and reworking. As laser welding puts a large amount of heat into a small area, it welds more quickly and has a smaller heat affected zone (less degrading of the parent metal’s properties) and therefore can produce a stronger/better weld. As with all welding, setup is required to get the best weld possible.

Aluminium laser welding vs steel and stainless

Why aluminium and copper are difficult to weld

Aluminium, copper, gold and silver are highly reflective to infrared light. That is why they make excellent reflective heat shields, as most heat energy is in the IR band. However this also makes them difficult to get heat into. On top of this, these metals have high thermal conductivity, so they suck the heat away as you try to heat them to melting point.

HOW TO WELD ALUMINIUM WITH A LASER WELDER

In the molten state these metals are less reflective, and weld more easily. Hence the solution for thick aluminium is to use a high powered pulse to initiate melting, known as keyhole welding. This can be done using a high powered laser such as a 2000W correctly focused CW (continuous wave) laser. Alternatively, use a laser with a pulsed mode designed for aluminium such as our Lightwelder15, which welds 3mm at high speed (12mm/s or more) with full penetration.

Aluminium laser welded box landscape
Aluminium laser welded box landscape
Laser cleaning blue powdercoating white glove
2kW laser cleaning blue powder coating

Laser welders with laser cleaning function!

You now have the option of laser cleaning at the touch of a button.  Our latest cleaning system uses the same head for welding and cleaning, without changing any parts.  Almost all others on the market require you to open the optics and change parts.  That allows dust in, which can cause expensive failure of the head.  We avoid this problem and save a lot of time.  We offer this great new system on our water cooled Generation 5 (G5) laser welders, but mainly on the 2000W version.  These can remove rust quite quickly from thick items. Please note these are not ideal for thin sheet metal as the heat input risks distorting the panel. For thin sheet metal a pulsed laser cleaner is recommended, but more expensive. 

Laser-weld-stainless-using-wire-feeder
Stainless fusion welded by laser

How much maintenance does a fibre laser welder need?

Very little upkeep is required. The key points are:

  • Change the water every month in water cooled models, with distilled/deionised water.
  • Check the protective lens for dark spots or spark marks every day, or when the welding power feels like it’s decreasing.
  • Ensure you have enough gas and flow rate. This gas protects the lens.
  • Change the welding tips or nozzles as they wear out (due to rubbing on the parts being welded).
Consumables tips protective lens
Consumables tips protective lens

LASER WELDER is now in the USA also

Based on the sensational reponse of the Australian market, we have also set up in the USA.  Check out laser-welder.net for the best value laser welders in the US market 

Map of mainland USA
A map showing laser-welder.net service area

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Argon is best. Nitrogen can be used in some circumstances, including most stainless.

Yes, if you use the nozzle with a small hole and the pin point mode (no wobble/circle). However you need to use a much higher gas pressure to blow the dross away, approx. 15 Bar. The small hole assists this. For welding the pressure is much less, around 2 Bar or 15 liters per minute.

Autogenous welding simply means welding without filler wire.  TIG welders know this as fusion welding, where the two components are heated to melting point so they combine together.  Laser welding uses the motion of the laser beam, controlled by the galvanometer, to aid movement of the weld pool.  TIG welders are very skilled at doing this by hand, but our laser welders make it easy and give an even finer “stack of dimes” look.