A laser processing apparatus includes a support portion, a first laser processing head, a second laser processing head, a first vertical movement mechanism, a second vertical movement mechanism, a first horizontal movement mechanism, a second horizontal movement mechanism, and a controller configured to control rotation of the support portion, emission of a first and a second laser lights from the first and the second laser processing heads, and movement of a first and a second focusing points.

In various embodiments, a workpiece is processed utilizing primary and secondary laser beams having different wavelengths and which are coupled into specialized optical fibers. The primary and secondary beams may be utilized during different stages of workpiece processing.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a thermal process chamber that includes a substrate support, a first plurality of heating elements disposed over or below the substrate support, and a spot heating module disposed over the substrate support. The spot heating module is utilized to provide local heating of regions on a substrate disposed on the substrate support during processing. Localized heating of the substrate alters temperature profile. The shape of the beam spot produced by the spot heating module can be modified without making changes to the optics of the spot heating module.

Disclosed is a multi-mode laser device for metal manufacturing applications including additive manufacturing (AM), laser cladding, laser welding, laser cutting, laser texturing and laser polishing. The multi-mode laser device configures off-axis, solid-state diode or diode-pumped lasers into an array to perform precision controlled, direct metal deposition printing, cladding, laser welding, laser cutting, laser texturing and laser polishing through a single device. Dual-mode printing, cladding and welding capability using metal wire and powder feedstock sources in the same device is provided with in-line control, precision wire feed driver/controller, adjustable shield gas diffuser, and nozzles tailored to wire feedstock diameter.

Provided are a systems and methods for manufacturing objects by solid freeform fabrication, especially titanium and titanium alloy objects, wherein the deposition rate is increased by using two separate heat sources, one heat source for heating the deposition area on the base material and one heat source for heating and melting a metallic material, such as a metal wire or a powdered metallic material.

A system that uses a scalable array of individually controllable laser beams that are generated by a fiber array system to process materials into an object. The adaptive control of individual beams may include beam power, focal spot width, centroid position, scanning orientation, amplitude and frequency, piston phase and polarization states of individual beams. Laser beam arrays may be arranged in a two dimensional cluster and configured to provide a pre-defined spatiotemporal laser power density distribution, or may be arranged linearly and configured to provide oscillating focal spots along a wide processing line. These systems may also have a set of material sensors that gather information on a material and environment immediately before, during, and immediately after processing, or a set of thermal management modules that pre-heat and post-heat material to control thermal gradient, or both.

Systems and methods for additive manufacturing are described. In some embodiments, a method of controlling a weld height in an additive manufacturing process includes determining a desired melt pool width based, at least in part, on a desired weld height; selectively activating one or more laser energy sources based, at least in part, on the desired melt pool width; and melting a portion of a layer of material on a build surface via exposure to laser energy from the one or more activated laser energy sources to form a melt pool on the build surface having the desired melt pool width. Systems and methods to the use of staggered laser energy sources are also described.

Described herein is a system for processing a workpiece that includes a plurality of lasers that each produces a laser beam pulse. The system also includes a laser control module that sequences temporal characteristics of the laser beam pulses. Additionally, the system includes a laser beam compensation module that shapes a near field intensity profile of at least one of the laser beam pulses and adjusts a path length of at least one of the laser beam pulses. The system also includes at least one laser beam position element that combines the laser beam pulses to produce a combined laser beam pulse at a surface of the workpiece.

A laser welding method includes: forming a molten weld pool by emitting laser light including a main power region and a sub-power region onto a workpiece, the main power region including at least one main beam, the sub-power region including at least one sub-beam having a lower power density than power density of the main beam; and solidifying the molten weld pool. The sub-beam is emitted onto the workpiece such that a void formed inside the molten weld pool escapes to outside of the molten weld pool before the molten weld pool becomes solidified.

Methods for joining a first blank and a second blank, at least one of the first and second blanks comprising at least a layer of aluminum or of an aluminum alloy or a layer of zinc or of a zinc alloy. The method comprises selecting a first portion of the first blank to be joined to the second blank, and selecting a second portion of the second blank to be joined to the first portion, and welding the first portion to the second portion. The welding comprises using a filler metal laser beam and a welding laser beam, and displacing both laser beams in a welding direction to melt and mix a filler wire material with the melted portions of the two blanks. The present disclosure further relates to blanks obtained by any of these methods and to products obtained from such blanks.