Laser welding car wheels?

[Engineer]

Wonder if anyone has ever heard of laser welding being used to repair alloy car wheels?

Seemingly there is a company in Hampshire providing this service now, but I would have thought the cost of the equipment certainly means they dont do the work in house themselves?

Very interesting though, as I was not aware laser welding could be used for this type of job.

 

[hotrodder]

A long shot but if this is a third hand thing (someone heard etc) is there any chance they had a dyslexic moment and jumbled up laser wheel alignment and welding? Only asking as that's what google did

I know less than nothing about laser welding... seen vids of it done manually but that's micro welding/jewelry. If bigger kit can be configured for manual use then i suppose some enterprising soul might have come up with a way. Tight times, uber expensive kit sitting idle...

 

[Engineer]

Autowheels in Hampshire advised they are using laser welding to repair car wheels, but as the plant required is £60K +, seemed that this is either BS, or the person answering the phone doesnt have a clue.

 

[TechnicAl]

They have a laser welder in Corus (TaTa) Scunthorpe. Apparently it can weld really thick plate in a single pass in record time. It cost over a million and they had to buy a MIG set to finish the job because the Laser welds sank below the surface.

I should imagine it would be able to weld alloy wheels but the cost must be a factor.

 

[madkayaker]

i think the hull sections on subs are laser welded

 

[Engineer]

Maybe "Autowheels" got hold of their laser welder cheap from the MOD.......................lol

 

[TechnicAl]

i think the hull sections on subs are laser welded

I think they have tried it but they actually use flux cored wire and have done for years. I used to work with them in Barrow.