Manufacturing procedure and costs analysis of laser welded all steel sandwich panels

Laser welding is a fast and flexible way to manufacture all steel sandwich panels. Economically the most feasible solution is often to weld as large panels as possible. In corrugated core all steel sandwich panel applications the effect of an air gap in welding is difficult to eliminate when welding large panels.
The manufacturability of large panels with specified core types was estimated by performing welding experiments of small joint details and manufacturing of large panels with equivalent joint configurations. Materials used were mild steel and stainless steels with thicknesses from 0.5 to 1.5 mm. The panels were welded with a 6 kW CO2–laser. It was found that acceptable air gap and misalignment depend on the joint configuration. The manufacturing of large panels is possible with very low defect levels. The total flatness of the panels was better than 11.3 mm depending on the manufacturing procedure.
Total manufacturing costs of high power lasers was compared in welding of large weight optimized panel. Laser system, panel size, fixturing and welding parameters affect the total cost. The economical evaluation of the cost of the panel is difficult due to its strong dependancy on the application Size and type of the panel core and production batch size has a strong role to costs.