Laser dimpling and remote welding of zinc-coated steels for automotive applications

"The flexibility in terms of beam shapebility and amplitude in the range of process parameters offered by the emerging high power and quality active fiber lasers can be advantageously used in overcoming the well-known problems in remote laser welding of zinc-coated steel components in the car mass production. The paper explores the potentiality offered by the combination of the scanner technology with high brilliance fiber lasers when laser dimpling and remote welding are executed in a successive order: the first one to realize gap spacers and the second one to weld together clamped sheets in zinc-coated steels. In particular, the substitution of the traditional mechanical dimpling with the laser dimpling is investigated in order to highlight the potentiality of a solution that is flexible, unaffected by tool wear and highly productive.