Technology of the Future

In aviation and aerospace technology, the highest demands are placed on material and technology.

Lightweight components are particularly important in the aerospace industry. The weight advantages over the classic material steel are particularly important here. In addition to the light metal aluminum, fiber-reinforced plastics are primarily used.

With wavelengths close to the absorption maximum of aluminum, LDF and LDM lasers are predestined as tools for aluminum welding of lightweight components. In addition to the light metal aluminum, fiber-reinforced plastics are primarily used. They are 25 percent lighter than aluminum and 60 to 70 percent lighter than steel.

 

When it comes to applying anti-corrosion coatings, laser-based powder cladding is clearly superior to other processes such as thermal spraying: The top-hat beam profile of the diode laser creates a particularly uniform molten pool, which produces fine-grained, pore-free and crack-free coatings. This reduces reworking to a minimum. Newer processes such as high-speed cladding are capable of replacing galvanic coating processes such as hard chrome plating, which is under threat of being banned in the EU.