laser welding
 

Did a search here and found some mentions of it but nothing recent or extensive.
Anyone up to speed on this technology? Is MIG or TIG more versatile or has laser closed the gap?

Of course MIG, TIG are versatile. Laser is great but not very portable.

Even with all of today's electronics on board, welding is still art and science mixed. Human skill goes a long way unless it's fully robotic. Laser is pure science.

I'm in automation - robotics mainly. Depends on what you mean by laser welding (LBW/spot/brazing etc.). The tech has existed for many many years. Capital costs are huge. The OEMs got into laser brazing for body-in-white over the last 10ish years for appearance purposes but there is still a bunch of post-work required (sanding). I can think of two applications where laser spot is used in OEM facilities for very small applications. I have yet to see a true LBW application in production. Laser hybrid was all the talk 20 years ago and it did not take off. Laser welding is non-existent in Tier 1/2 supplier manufacturing environments - for North America anyway. Traditional MIG and resistance welding is what you'll see out there.

Again cap costs are huge. Part fitment is critical (costs up). Resources to run this stuff are few and far between - especially in today's labor pool environment. It's super fast but welding applications are usually not the bottleneck in automated manufacturing.

This is the problem, along with no perceivable benefit in most cases.

The tech is fantastic but what are the real benefits compared to the other options?
In the home workshop TIG seems to be the thing but I still use my old stick welder a lot.

BTW they're now using laser welding to fill in dents and scratches for watch repairs/restoration.

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The benefits are a) speed b) appearance c) reduced distortion.

Laser rust removal. Just wow.
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