A method for laser welding a pair of metal pins delivers a laser beam to a work-side of the pair of metal pins where a respective pair of surfaces of the metal pins are adjacent to each other and face in the same direction. The laser beam first traces a first path on the work-side to form a melt pool by keyhole welding. The first path crosses an interface between the metal pins. After tracing the first path, the laser beam is switched to trace a second path on the work-side with the laser beam at a delivered rate of energy per unit path length that is less than the one used for the first path. The second path crosses the interface and is within the first path. The method is well-suited for welding of hairpin and I-pin stators.

Laser cutting systems and methods are described herein. One or more systems include a laser generating component, an optical component, a fixture for holding a support with a part positioned on the support, and a control mechanism for adjusting at least one of the laser generating component, the optical component, and the fixture such that a ratio of a laser energy applied to the part and a part material thickness is maintained within a predetermined acceptable range at each point along a cut path to cut through the part while maintaining the integrity of the support. Other systems and methods are disclosed herein.

Systems and methods for laser processing using a modified laser beam having a non-Gaussian energy distribution are described herein In some embodiments, a laser processing system includes a laser source that outputs a laser beam having a Gaussian energy distribution, and a beam modifier positioned in a path of the output beam. The beam modifier controllably modifies the Gaussian energy distribution of the output laser beam along at least one axis perpendicular to the beam's axis of travel. In various embodiments, the laser processing system includes a beam delivery sub-subsystem that operates in a raster mode. In such embodiments, the subsystem can raster the modified beam across a material to form raster lines for transferring an image or pattern to the material.

A remanufacturing method for a metal part having a damage. The damage groove is divided into a number of levels, and the groove bottom is treated by absorption layer-free laser shock peening to remove surface impurities and to refine surface-layer crystal grains. Then a cladding layer is formed by laser cladding. The process is repeated until the groove is completely filled by the cladding layer to higher than the surface of the metal part and the cladding layer higher than the surface is cut by a mechanical processing and polished, and the upper surface of the laser cladding layer is subjected to large-area overlapped laser shock peening.

A welding method for joining workpieces (10) made of hot-crack-sensitive materials at a lap joint by means of a remote laser welding device. A stitched weld seam (11) with the equivalent strength of a continuous weld seam (11) is produced from a plurality of weld seam sections (13). The power input of the laser beam (21) changes periodically between a minimum and a maximum value while the laser spot (22) describes an anharmonically oscillating pendulum motion on the workpiece surface plane (18). The welding and the formation of the weld seam sections (13) take place in the phases of the power input with the maximum value. The anharmonically oscillating pendulum motion takes place with an oscillation frequency of 2 to 25 Hz and an amplitude in the range of 1 to 20 mm. The method is intended for welding of hot-crack-sensitive aluminum materials, e.g. for production of automobile bodies.

A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal aligning film includes preparing a multilayer structure in which a substrate, a conductive layer, a liquid crystal alignment layer, and a passivation film are sequentially provided, etching one area of the liquid crystal alignment layer by irradiating a pulse laser to the multilayer structure, and exposing one area of the conductive layer by removing the passivation film, wherein the pulse laser is irradiated to the liquid crystal alignment layer from the passivation film. The method is compatible with a continuous process.

A laser beam irradiation unit of a laser processing apparatus includes a pulse laser oscillator, a condenser which converges and irradiates a pulse laser beam upon a workpiece held on a chuck table, a dichroic mirror disposed between the pulse laser oscillator and the condenser, a strobo flash irradiation unit which irradiates light on a route of the dichroic mirror and the condenser, a beam splitter disposed between the strobo flash irradiation unit and the dichroic mirror, and an image pickup unit disposed on the route of the light split by the beam splitter. A control unit renders the strobo flash irradiation unit and the image pickup unit operative in a timed relationship with the pulse laser beam oscillated from the pulse laser beam oscillator and irradiated upon the workpiece and detects a processed state on the basis of an image signal from the image pickup unit.

A method for joining busbars includes reshaping a raw laser beam to obtain a reshaped laser beam. The reshaped laser beam comprises a core focus portion and at least one ring focus portion. The core focus portion and the ring focus portion are coaxial with respect to one another. The ring focus portion surrounds the core focus portion. The method further includes directing the reshaped laser beam to a plurality of busbars to weld the plurality of busbars to one another along at least one weld seam.

A radiator in a laser welding apparatus radiates a beam to a main region and an auxiliary region on a welding surface. The auxiliary region is positioned to be adjacent to the main region or to be apart from the main region. A welding direction is a direction in which a beam radiation region moves during laser welding. The auxiliary region includes at least an area positioned on a forward side of the main region in the welding direction. The radiator radiates the beam in a setting such that at least one peak occurs in each of the main region and the auxiliary region.

Methods include directing a laser beam to a target along a scan path at a variable scan velocity and adjusting a digital modulation during movement of the laser beam along the scan path and in relation to the variable scan velocity so as to provide a fluence at the target within a predetermined fluence range along the scan path. Some methods include adjusting a width of the laser beam with a zoom beam expander. Apparatus include a laser source situated to emit a laser beam, a 3D scanner situated to receive the laser beam and to direct the laser beam along a scan path in a scanning plane at the target, and a laser source digital modulator coupled to the laser source so as to produce a fluence at the scanning plane along the scan path that is in a predetermined fluence range as the laser beam scan speed changes along the scan path.