Laser welder vs TIG for stainless steel pipe

TIG welding takes too long

An equipment manufacturer approached us recently to see if laser welding offered benefits compared with TIG welding of 304 grade stainless steel pipes.  Their TIG welders were taking 3-4 days to weld the piping on their small installation.  With today’s labour costs and shortages of skilled welders this was costing them far more than time.

Up to this point all our efforts were on welds done on a flat surface, but we were quite confident the curved surfaces could be laser welded with high speed and good penetration.

Weld it fast but with good appearance

Our initial weld samples focused on speed and achieving full penetration.  The welds were done by hand.  They were quick, taking 70 seconds for 63mm OD stainless 409 test pieces, but not as neat as a TIG weld.  The customer then asked for welds to look as good as their TIG welds.  However like many welds in the real world, they didn’t need full penetration on their 304 stainless steel schedule pipes, as they were not highly stressed or pressurised.  We asked for and quickly received photos of their current welds as a baseline, and set to work.

Laser welds look better than TIG, but much faster

It was now apparent that hand welding wouldn’t cut it.  In the end we used a control system and settings we include in our water cooled laser welders.  With some adjustment we quickly arrived at a great result, as shown in the left hand side of the image above.  This level of weld quality was easy (and quite satisfying to do) and repeatable with our set up.

On top of the great appearance the welding time with our control system was halved compared to our first samples, down to 35 seconds on our 63mm tube, or equal to 49 seconds with their 89mm outside diameter.  We weren’t given a welding time for TIG welding their pipes, but a pipe welder we spoke to said that pipe would take closer to an hour with conventional TIG welding.

Our customer was quite excited upon receiving the photos.  They described them as “high end welds” and after some quick calculations they had a pay back time of a few months and all the justification they needed to place an order!

Interestingly, this result was achieved quite quickly, and there is scope to tune the process a little (as you do) and improve it even more.  Some of the things we can now do have amazed us.  This new techology has so much room for development.

IPG laser welder and others lack the settings

It’s interesting to note that the $40,000 IPG welder we tested in late 2021 didn’t have the features our laser welder has, despite being more than double to price of ours.  As such our welders are unbelievable value and equal to or better than anything else on the market.  Our value, support and level of expertise with these makes us the preferred supplier in the Australian laser welder industry.