Laser Welding
      
 
Video Details
ATS originally began research into hybrid laser welding to provide affordable, lightweight, precision structural shapes for shipbuilding. Our patented system combines laser welding with a gas-metal arc welding (GMAW) system, greatly reducing thermal distortion. The ATS hybrid system provides superior travel speeds, improved metallurgical properties, better tolerance to fit-up variations (especially gaps), reduced distortion, better final weld contour, and improved structural fatigue life. We also developed a unique process control and quality assurance (PC/QA) system to adapt process weld parameters and perform on-the-fly inspections of weld size, porosity, undercut, and other quality attributes.

Our innovative, semi-automated system uses a series of cameras to both guide the welding process and inspect the weld during and after completion. This capability enables the user to manufacture products at higher speeds and with greater reliability and repeatability than previously possible. ATS has participated in multiple weld qualifications for the HLAW process from the U.S. Navy, ABS and AWS.

 

 
Videos
ATSVB0039 - Episode 10
Metallic Sandwich Panels: Customized for Your Application
Apr 12, 2010 - 03:00ATSVB0031
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ATSVB0038 - Episode 9
Metallic Sandwich Panels: Crash Testing "Next Generation Rail Tank Car"
Apr 12, 2010 - 05:57ATSVB0031
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ATSVB0037 - Episode 8
Materials: Metals/Compliance

Apr 06, 2010 - 01:27ATSVB0031
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ATSVB0035 - Episode 7
Process and Product Development for Custom Applications
Apr 06, 2010 - 02:34
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ATSVB0033 - Episode 6
How Solid State Lasers Changed the Industry

Mar 29, 2010 - 02:25ATSVB0031
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ATSVB0031 - Episode 5
Advantages of Hybrid Laser Welding

Mar 29, 2010 - 01:25
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ATSVB0013 - Episode 4
Corrugated Sandwich Panels: Early Design and Manufacturing Challenges
Oct 26, 2009 - 02:49Paul A. Blomquist: ATSVB0013 - Episode 4 Corrugated Sandwich Panels: Early Design and Manufacturing Challenges Oct 26, 2009 - 02:49 Again, the challenge was to defend a design concept that would save tremendous amounts of weight on a ship, will save 450 tons in an aircraft carrier, because we can now use a higher strength structural steel that is far more weight-efficient and it can be thinner. Because our process is fast and does not result in a lot of distortion, then that shape can be manufactured cost-effectively, and in fact American Tank and Fabricating has bought a system that we at eSUB(ph) have put together for that application for the aircraft carriers. The initial change in design was done with traditional welding methods after time studies and quality studies it was determined that our process was several times faster and several times less expensive than the traditional methods. At the same time, these designs are now demanded by the ship builders, because the accuracy of the product far surpasses everything they’ve had in the past and the ship can be built more efficiently, more quickly into the whole lot less rework and effort than in the past. This is a section cut from a sandwich panel that we built to validate the design models. This panel was part of a larger structure that was put into what’s called a Grillage Testing Machine at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock, Maryland. You can see some heavy buckling occurring here. The design models predicted that this panel would start buckling at 1.6 million pounds of force, about 800 tons of force. The panel actually buckled at 1.7 million pounds of force. It outperformed the design model by a nice margin. At the same time, the design model proved that it’s valid for the kind of application that these panels were intended. Another benefit, this kind of test is that we were testing a large number of welds simultaneously to destruction and these welds all behaved in a ductile fashion. They did not catastrophically fail, which means that in a real-world structure, when the going gets tough, the panel would not self-destruct, but would rather handle the loads, and give people time to make adjustments or get out of the way. Total Duration: 3 Minutes
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ATSVB0012 - Episode 3
Manufacturing: Breakthrough Control
Systems
Oct 26, 2009 - 02:06Paul A. Blomquist: ATSVB0012 - Episode 3 Manufacturing: Breakthrough Control Systems Oct 26, 2009 - 02:06 The next step to get these things manufactured efficiently was to move to a manufacturing process now. It was far more productive and far more accurate than the traditional processes of hand welding or even limited machine type welding. That required that a breakthrough control system that could manage 50 or 60 data inputs simultaneously at very high speeds and do that and be self-regulating so that the operator merely pushes a button and the world gets made at very, very high speeds. That then require this patented control system that ATS has put onto the market now in conjunction with eSUB and allowed this process to become something that an industrial user could buy and set up and operate in their factory. Then having that progress allowed us to move to another level of structural efficiency to take and make out of metal, something that looks like cardboard and that is twice as strong and twice as weight-efficient as the traditional design of a plate stiffened by a structural shape. Again, these things are very light, very thin, and the traditional processes would distort them, make them almost impossible to manufacture, but having now started with this process and patented this system, we are able to adapt it to this type of structure and things that in the laboratory 15 years ago cost $400 or 500 a square foot now are much, much cheaper than that, and we are now building products with structural sandwich panels to go on to the latest class of naval destroyer. Total Duration: 2 Minutes
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ATSVB0011 - Episode 2
Process and Product Development: Lighter, Stronger Navy Vessels
Oct 26, 2009 - 02:53Paul A. Blomquist: ATSVB0011 - Episode 2 Process and Product Development: Lighter, Stronger Navy Vessels Oct 26, 2009 - 02:53 As far as the laser operations are concerned, we are involved in product and we are involved in process. So we got into the product because of the need for the product and the expectation that the traditional process was not capable of making a quality product fast enough. Host: To which one it began involved in first? Paul A. Blomquist: We started out with a product and then moved into another product, but understanding that to do the product we had to have the process. So, the process took more effort and more time than the product took. Host: What was the first process? Paul A. Blomquist: It was the Straight Laser Welding with the attempt to make structural shapes for maybe combat ships. Host: So what was the challenge? Paul A. Blomquist: The challenge was to find a productive process to manufacture a new style of structural shape for strengthening naval combatant vessels. Host: What does this mean? Paul A. Blomquist: That takes a long time. The ships have to have a hold. They have to have decks. They have to have valve kits. These are the things that you see when you look at a ship, but just like you see the floor of a room in a house, you see the floor but underneath the floor, that’s something we call joist that’s stiff in the floor, make it strong enough to carry what we want on the floor. So all of these plates you see on the outside of the ship are all invisibly backed up. I think that look like letter Ts that’s stuck onto that. Those Ts are an expensive part of that ship and the traditional Ts that came from steel mills were both inaccurate and not efficient in terms of weight. The navy wants more-and-more ships that weigh less and perform better. That means we need to go to lighter gauges and higher strengths to have these Ts and no longer can traditional steel mills supply them. Steel mills are fine for buildings, steel mill shapes, but not really for ships, and literally 30 years ago, I began to inquire into all of this methodology. Over the years, I got research money and developed processes and the design issues in conjunction with a lot of other designers to make these to have a concept now that could be attractive to both the ship builders and the ship designers. Total Duration: 3 Minutes
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ATSVB0010 - Episode 1
Game Changing Solutions

Oct 26, 2009 - 03:12Paul A. Blomquist: ATSVB0010 - Episode 1 Game Changing Solutions Oct 26, 2009 - 03:12 It just works in a world of disruptive technologies, finding this technology that will kick out everything else in the market, because it is so effective, because it is so efficient, because it is so -- because it does product such high-quality products. The hybrid laser arc welding process is one of the most disruptive processes for welding that’s come along in a long time. Laser Welding has been around for 30 years now. It’s highly effective for very high volume parts, where those parts can be fit together very precisely. For instance, Gillette tried Laser Welding compared to Resistance Welding. In one purchase, they bought 40 laser welders, many, many millions of dollars. However, Gillette had the luxury of having parts that fit together very precisely. We are working in a world of maybe ship-building and heavy steel fabrication where parts don’t come together. It’s very difficult to make those parts fit together well and we’ve gone to what we call Hybrid Laser Arc Welding where we marry the laser process to the traditional gas metal arc process and we get a combination that’s better than some other parts. We can go much faster, we can alter the metallurgical properties of materials. We can get very, very low distortion, and it’s a breakthrough process. It allows a company that has lost business to lower overhead competitors to now boost its production without increasing its costs. It has allowed companies to design products that are far lighter, far more weight-efficient, cost less to buy --
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