The Benefits of Wobble Welding Compared to Conventional Welding Methods

 Wobble modes

• The welding heads equipped with the Wobble / Seam Tracking module have the following wobble modes available:

• The wobble frequency and amplitude can be modified based on the application

 Weld Quality / Consistency

• Compared to conventional (laser) welding methods, welding with the wobble option results in superior weld quality.
• Wobbling also helps to overcome consistency issues related to back reflections when welding materials like aluminum, copper, etc.

Corner weld on 6061-T6 aluminum (thickness 1.5 mm). The picture on the left showing the overall quality and the microscopic image on the right showing the close up of the weld.

 Materials Prone to Cracking / Porosity

• When welded with conventional methods, some materials are sensitive to welding defects, for example:

–Some grades of aluminum that are prone to the pore formation during the welding process
–Spring steel which is sensitive to thermal cracking

• When using the wobbler welding head, the welding process can be further optimized (various wobble modes, amplitudes and frequencies), so that the welding defects can be minimized or eliminated.

6061 aluminum sample welded with conventional laser welding process: obvious pores in the cross section		6061 aluminum sample welded with the wobbler head: the cross section is free of porosity

Welding Dissimilar Metals

• When welding dissimilar metals, the wobbler has incomparable benefits, for example:

–If one material has a higher melting point or higher reflectivity than the other, the melting behavior of the materials can be “balanced” by choosing the wobble parameters appropriately.
–Some combinations of metals tend to form brittle intermetallic compounds as a result of welding. When using the wobbler, the melting / solidification of the intermetallic layer can be controlled better, which improves the weld quality.

304 stainless steel and oxygen free copper tubes welded together using circular wobble		EDS-image showing the blending of the metals in the cross section of the weld

Tolerance for Process Variables

• As it comes to process variables, such as the gap between the workpieces, wobble welding allows a considerably wider process parameter window that results in good quality welds.

• Example: Butt welding stainless steel sheets (thickness 1.5 mm):

A) Variation in the gap between workpieces		B) Offset from the center line between the workpieces

o  = Good Weld

Δ = Acceptable

× = Unacceptable /Not Welded