Till last month, the first tailor laser welder in China, jointly developed by CAS Shenyang Automation Institute and Baosteel, has accumulatively welded over 65,000 pieces, reaching the international level, which indicates that the domestic tailer laser welding technology and machinery level have been further improved. Using laser as the energy, tailor welding could cohere substance with different material, thickness and coating, weld into a whole plate, which is widely applied in automobile manufacturing sectors. At present, the cutting processing & distribution center set up by Baosteel International for automobile works is mostly equipped with tailor laser welder unit. Due to the complicated manufacturing process, and since then, most tailor laser welding units are imported from abroad. Because of the high price, long procurement cycle, and hard-to-maintain, the domestic peers have long intended to develop the local tailor laser welder for automobile.
In 2009, CAS Shenyang Automation Institute imitated the overseas advanced technology, initiated to develop domestic tailor laser welder. Since Baosteel has rich experience in automotive sheet production and tailor welding application, a joint R & D team has been established. The same year, we built a pilot welding line with capacity of 500,000 pieces at Baosteel International Naijing Summit Metal Products Co., Ltd.
At trial production stage, compared to another imported line, Bao's has big gap in performance, which could not meet the needs of massive production. Based on actual production, different specification and characteristics of components, Baosteel International Workshop Management Department, Nanjing Bao-Summit quality technicians, together with Shenyang Automation Institute, have made the further improvement in feeding system and clamp positioning system, etc. Through over half years' continuous improvement, the daily processing pieces of the domestic line have been increased from hundreds to thousands, with automation level tremendously enhanced. Until this year, the annual output of this line could reach over 700,000 pieces, far beyond the designed level.
Compared with imported line, the price of domestic line is only the half, and is proficient in small piece processing, easy to switch over. Its successful application has broken the price and technology monopoly of overseas company, enhancing the market competitiveness of domestic peers. Both parties are willing to intensify the R & D in stability and applicability so as to raise the market share of domestic lines.
