Factors of influence on welding 3-dimensional workpieces

Materials processing with laser radiation is increasingly applied in large-scale industry. This implies that the research of the fundamental principles of welding technology has to be extended to the sector of production technology. Specific problems, resulting from this extension in the development and the running of a production system require the exact knowledge of the different factors influencing and determining the working process. As far as laser material processing of 3-dimensional workpieces is concerned, these problems regard accuracy of the positioning, the load capacity and dynamic behaviour of the handling systems, the access to the welding location which is limited by the complexity of the workpiece geometry, clamping devices as well as the guide of the processing gas and the seam tracking systems.