Laser welding in e-mobility: process characterization and monitoring

Abstract. Nowadays car manufacturers have to face the challenge of electric mobility transition and it is therefore becoming an industrial priority to accomplish a large-scale battery manufacturing based on high production rates and zero-defect processes that must be obtained over a very high variety of products. The above challenges are currently examined, at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna, by studying and optimizing laser processes (manly cutting and welding) in case of battery fabrication and assembly. Materials investigated are manly pure copper and aluminum, processed by means of different sources, wavelengths and scanning heads. In order to reach the quality targets requested by the market, an in-process monitoring system is implemented as well as physical and data driven simulation models are under development. Finally, comparisons between the monitoring output, the keyhole simulation results, and experimental data will be carried out.