Automotive laser welding can be traced back to the 1980s, when it was mainly welded body. Nearly four decades have passed, today's laser welding production line has emerged on a large scale in the automotive manufacturing industry and has become one of the outstanding achievements of the automotive manufacturing industry.

The use of laser welding technology in the automotive industry began in Germany, in the 1980s, German Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Sweden's Volvo and other European car manufacturers took the lead in the use of laser welding roof, body, side frame and other sheet metal welding, in the 1990s, the United States General Motors, Ford and Chrysler companies competed to introduce laser welding into automotive manufacturing, although the start was late, but the development of fast. Subsequently, Italy Fiat used laser welding in the welding assembly of most steel plate components, and Japan's Nissan, Honda and Toyota Motor companies also used laser welding process in the manufacturing of body covering parts, since then, high-strength steel laser welding assembly parts are used more and more in the automotive body manufacturing because of their excellent performance.

The hot automotive market drives the development of laser welding industry

With the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, many industries on product welding quality requirements continue to improve, in this context, laser welding in many industries in the application of the penetration rate continues to rise, especially metal materials and parts processing and manufacturing, its penetration rate is at a high level, at present, the automotive industry is an important application market for laser welding in China.

Whether it is the "Medium and long-term Development Plan for the Automobile Industry" issued in the early stage, or the "Development Plan for the new energy automobile Industry (2021-2035)", it has released an important signal: electric vehicles are the established industrial strategy of the state, and the direction of promoting its sustainable and healthy development at the policy level will not be shaken. These policies are promoting healthy and orderly development from multiple dimensions, and will benefit the development of the new energy automobile industry in the long run.

In 2015, China became the largest new energy vehicle sales country, so far 6 years, China's new energy vehicle sales have always maintained a steady upward trend. With the rapid development of domestic new energy vehicle production and lithium battery industry. According to the statistics of the China Automobile Association, in the first half of 2021, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 1.2 million, and the cumulative volume of power battery vehicles was 52.5GWh, and the cumulative sales volume was the same as that of the whole year in 2019, and the emerging momentum was continuing to expand. Nowadays, the speed of electrification of the global automotive industry continues to accelerate, and governments provide policy support such as car subsidies for consumers, stimulating the global sales performance of new energy vehicles continues to rise. Bank of America Global Research predicts that the global penetration rate of all electric vehicles (EVs), including pure electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), will rise from 23% to 67% between 2025 and 2040.

Global emerging energy market Research agency SNE Research predicts that global new energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 15 million units in 2025, global electric vehicle sales are expected to reach 23 million units in 2030, the market capacity growth is expected to be more than ten times, the strong new energy vehicle market will accelerate the development of laser welding industry.

Application of laser welding technology in auto parts

A car is assembled by about 20,000 parts, of which iron parts account for the vast majority, although collectively referred to as iron, but the frame of the body frame and the body part of the model are made of steel plate, transmission and other box parts are used to melt the iron and inject the casting made of mold. Therefore, the welding process is an indispensable process in the process of automobile production and processing, such as frame, body, carriage, engine, car gear, roof, door, car seat sliding parts, car airbag bladder, exhaust pipe, car clutch, etc., are inseparable from welding technology.

Compared with traditional welding technology such as traditional resistance welding and carbon dioxide gas welding, laser welding technology has superior effect in new alloy materials. It has the advantages of fast welding speed, good quality, high production efficiency, large weld depth to width ratio, bright and beautiful, small heat input, small welding heat affected zone, welding is not easy to deform, etc., so that it has good performance in the processing of auto parts, such as efficiency, economy, safety, strength and high corrosion, and can realize the welding of auto parts, overlap welding, body welding and parts welding. Effectively reduce the weight of the body, improve the assembly accuracy of the body, increase the strength of the body, and reduce the cost of stamping and assembly in the process of automobile body manufacturing. With its exploration in the field of laser welding, The advanced laser flight welding, laser wire filling welding, WOBBLE welding, multi-wavelength blue light composite welding technology and multi-wavelength blue light swing composite welding technology are applied to many auto parts such as automobile engine exhaust manifold, cylinder gasket, high pressure manifold, oxygen sensor, transmission fork, half shell assembly, automobile steering system steering bracket, guide tube, steering wheel assembly, etc. Through the perfect combination with modern automobile manufacturing, it provides more high-quality solutions for the future development of lightweight vehicles.