Geoff_H Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Anyone got any experience with laser welding for aircraft? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff_H Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 It apparently can make professional welder out of a dog dollop welder like me. It appears that you melt the filler the the filler transfers heat to the metals to be joined. Fast weld less heat into metals so less buckling. Expenditure for equipment that is needed to be purchased is vague, I don't know all that is involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) Low heat welding was tried in the sixty's . Tested and discarded. ( Eutectic ) . But I did like their super hard overlay, with a different weld to the base , then the hard weld onto. Tested against a " cold " chisel . the HHS hard-weld . split the chisel a quarter way down it shank . Used to rebuild bulldozer teeth . spacesailor Edited April 8 by spacesailor Spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 TIG is like that Geoff, with thin sheet. Thermal TEMP gradient very high and with any carbon whatever in the steel it will give a brittle weld prone to cracking right along the seam. . It was going to revolutionise car body repair.particularlyrused sections. space Eutectic was OK when used where it was suitable. Good for remote site repairs on frost damaged cylinder blocks. You did a short run, quickly followed with Peening of the weld to stress relieve it as you went and prevent a crack propagating.. Made it possible to weld thick iron castings often in situ.. nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 It was trialed in the " NorthSea gas " . Pipeline welding . I almost had a job there . But it wasn't taken up . spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Welding under water is something else.. nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff_H Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 After a websearch, always a little dodgy, I am sure that for thin thicknesses laser welding could be great for the homebuilder. Less distortion continual good penetrative and ease of use by amateur. I did a google purchase search on laser welders. 90% for sale are tig or stick etc welders. The price of welders from that laser search ranged from around $1000, very affordable. But on closer inspection none of these were actually laser, usually tig (already have tig set up so not at all interested). Then I found that the cheapest laser was $10,000. Just a lot outside my budget for new tools. $25,000 for a reasonably capable machine ( and I really do not know what makes a machine more or even less capable). To buy one I would have to be building a steel tube large aircraft to even start to think about one. Maybe one day they will get cheap. My car has laser headlights. Supposed to be able to light up to around 600metres ahead. The car manufacturer does not offer them any more. They were a $2k extra, I guess that they were not considered worth buying and hence not in demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueadventures Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 I have had 4 glass frame repairs by laser over the past 5 years and very nice work; there are videos on how it's done. Very precise and strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueadventures Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 44 minutes ago, Geoff_H said: My car has laser headlights. Supposed to be able to light up to around 600metres ahead. The car manufacturer does not offer them any more. Yes agree, the Led head lights are like high beam at times and hear they are looking to definitely regulate their use on vehicles and that will be a good thing. Led on spot and flood lights would be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Yeah, it's a bit hard on people coming the other way. Nev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff_H Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 Both the laser and led headlights in my car are dot controlled. If there is a car in front or coming head on the dots in that area are turned off by their computers. One time when the laser lights came on there was a car in front of me, it only lit up the left side of the road a few hundred metres in front of the car in front of me. I don't know what that driver thought seeing the side of thr6road lit up 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 And I thought those . High Intensity Discharge , lights were brightest. My garden L E D lights , don't last long . But are cheap enough to throw away . Light Emitting Diode headlights don't seem such a good idea , When Halogen 130 watt Is so bright . spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabiru7252 Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 laser headlights consist of one or more solid state laser diodes mounted inside the headlight. These blue lasers are fired at a yellow phosphor, similar to that used in white LEDs. This produces a powerful, vibrant white light that can then be bounced off reflectors and out of the headlights towards the road. Laser headlights built in this way have several benefits. They’re more energy efficient than LEDs that put out the same amount of light, while also being more space efficient, too. Just in case you (like me) had never even heard of laser headlights. Sorry about the weird text formatting, not my fault... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 They KNOW where you live. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff_H Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 My vehicle actually has laser lights. They are reported to have an effective range of 600metres. They are inhibited from operating where there are street lights and the car is exceeding 60km/hr. They have a pretty heavy heat sink on them so the speed limitation might be for cooling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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