This article discusses about laser welding vs welding. Welding here refers to different types of welding processes used in industry. Welding can be defined as the process of joining two or more metals.
They can be similar or dissimilar. Depending upon the applications, welding can be classified into many types. Sometimes even a weak weld can do the job whereas some times the weld needs to have a lot of strength. This article will compare laser welding with other types of welding.
What is laser welding?
In the name itself, it suggests that laser welding uses lasers for welding purpose. Lasers provide a very narrow and concentrated heat source.
Narrow and concentrated heat source will make room for deeper welds and higher welding rates. This type of welding can be used in automation where high volume production of the same product needs to be done. In industries mostly the robots do the laser welding.
Types of welding
There are many types of welding. The type of welding depends on the source of heat, type of electrodes used, method of heating the desired area and much more.
The types of welding are discussed in the section given below-
- Gas welding – Gas welding uses a gas to produce flame hence the name gas welding. The major advantage of using gas welding is that we can control the temperature of the weld zone by changing the temperature of the flame which is done by regulating the flow of gas.
- Solid state welding – No filler metal is used in this process. Coalescence is produced at temperatures below the melting point of the base materials that are being welded.
- Resistance welding – Electrical resistance is used to generate heat for welding purposes. The electric current is passed through the metals that need to be welded. The resistance created in this process generates enough heat to weld the metals.
- Arc welding – An electric arc is generated between the work piece and an electrode. This electrode generates enough arc to produce heat for welding.
- Newer welding– Rapidly moving objects create heat through friction which is used for welding purposes.
Laser welding vs arc welding
The table below shows the comparison of laser welding and arc welding
| Laser Welding | Arc Welding |
| Cleaner welds are provided by this type of welding | Soot is produced from the burnt electrodes. |
| More precise welds | The precision of welds depends on the operator |
| Easy to automate | It is semi automatic or manually operated. |
| Can be used on thinner materials as well | Used on thin materials but does not provide enough strength |
| The welds have high tensile and bending strength. | Provides lesser tensile and bending strength. |
Image Credits: Weldscientist, Excalibur 7018, CC BY-SA 4.0
Laser welding and TIG welding
The table below show the comparison between laser beam welding and tig welding. TIG stands for Tungsten Inert Gas.
| Laser Welding | TIG Welding |
| The welds are precise | The precision depends on the workers |
| The welds are cleaner | The welds are not as clean as laser welds |
| Laser beam welding uses lasers for welding | In TIG welding, lasers are not used for welding |
| No electrode is used | Tungsten electrode is used for welding |
| Easy to automate | Even TIG welding can be automated easily. |
Laser welding vs MIG welding
MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. The table below shows the comparison between laser welding and mig welding.
| Laser Welding | MIG Welding |
| Uses high precision laser beam for welding | Uses metal electrodes for welding purposes. |
| Deep penetrations using laser provide better welding strength to thick plates. | The penetration power of mig is not as good as Laser welding |
| No inert gas is used | An inert gas shields the weld pool |
| No electrode is used in this process | A metal electrode is used in this process |
| Sheets having large thickness can be welded in a single pass only. | Thicker sheets can be welded using MIG but it will need more number of passes to complete the job. |
Electron beam welding vs laser welding
Both of these welding techniques are modern and are expensive in nature. Both of them have similar weld characteristics.
The table below shows the comparison between electron beam welding and laser welding-
| Laser Welding | Electron Beam Welding |
| Uses a monochromatic beam of light or laser for welding purposes | Uses a beam of fast moving electrons for welding purposes. |
| The penetration power is high | The penetration power is high |
| Deeper penetrations provide strength to thicker welds. | Deeper penetrations provide strength to thicker welds. |
| No electron beam is used for welding purpose | Electron beam is converged using a converging apparatus |
| Cleaner welds | The welds are cleaner compared to other conventional methods of welding |
Laser welding vs Ultrasonic welding
The table below shows the comparison between laser welding and ultrasonic welding
| Laser Welding | Ultrasonic Welding |
| Uses a monochromatic beam of light for welding purposes | Uses vibrating electrode for welding purposes |
| The rate at which material is removed is high | Material removal rate is lower than laser welding |
| This process allows to penetrate deep in to the metals for welding | Penetration power is low so multiple passes are required to weld thicker plates |
| No electrode is used for welding purposes | No electrode is used in this type either |
| The weld strength is high | The strength of weld using ultrasonic welding is lower than the weld strength provided by laser welding |
| Laser welds can withstand higher amount of currents. | The amount of current that it can withstand is lesser |
Spot welding vs laser welding
Spot welding as the name suggests contains a weld in the form of small bead or dot. The table below shows the comparison between spot welding and laser welding
| Laser Welding | Spot Welding |
| It uses a beam of laser to weld. | Uses a metal strip and electrode for welding purposes |
| The welding takes place at a faster rate than resistance spot welding | The process is slower than laser welding |
| Better weld quality | The quality of weld is not like laser welding it is slightly lower in quality. |
| Repeatability is also better of laser weldingRepeatability is not like that of laser weldingCannot be used for every jobIt can weld sheets of metals which are thinTable : Comparison between Laser welding and Spot welding |
Laser welding vs plasma welding
The table below shows comparison between laser welding and plasma welding.
| Laser Welding | Plasma Welding |
| A laser beam of high intensity is used to generate heat in the area that needs to be weld. | It uses a high density plasma arc beam as the heat source to weld the metal sheets |
| It can be compared to MIG welding to produce hybrid welds. | It can alone be used to produce high density welds with low stress concentration |
| High penetration ability | It also has a high penetration ability |
| Inert gas is required | Inert gas is used to shield the weld pool |
| No special environment is needed | Special environment is required |
Laser welding vs resistance welding
The table below shows the comparison between laser welding and resistance welding –
| Laser Welding | Resistance Welding |
| Produces only fusion weld | Produces three types of weld- solid state, fusion and braze |
| External weld is produced by this type of process | An internal weld can be produced by using resistance welding. |
| The welding procedure employs a high intensity laser beam | The welding procedure employs the heat generated by electrical resistance between the metal sheets when electric current is applied to them. |
| High penetration | The penetration is not that deep as compared to laser welding |
Summary
In this article we compared laser welding with other welding techniques. We could see clearly that laser welding has majorly an upper hand over other welding techniques due to its high penetration power and ability to generate high amount of heat at a single spot.
Hi ….I am Abhishek Khambhata, have pursued B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering. Throughout four years of my engineering, I have designed and flown unmanned aerial vehicles. My forte is fluid mechanics and thermal engineering. My fourth-year project was based on the performance enhancement of unmanned aerial vehicles using solar technology. I would like to connect with like-minded people.