3 ms·
What's wrong with using an electric current to weld? Why use such an inefficient source of heat? I feel lasers might have more safety problems too.
by kristianp 2y ago
What's wrong with using an electric current to weld? Why use such an inefficient source of heat?
I feel lasers might have more safety problems too.
- ETH_start 2y agoSpace has a vacuum which reduces heat convection. My understanding is that laser welding would apply less heat to the area around the weld point.
- sandworm101 2y agoThe current is the problem. Between the current flowing through the metal, and the resulting electromagnetic emissions, arc welding on an ungrounded spacecraft will no doubt cause all sorts of headaches. A laser does not require passing current through the object.
- yetihehe 2y agoWelding with current typically requires electrric arc. That typically requires some gas at high enough pressure. Welding in space would mean you need a lot of gas, which has to be shipped from earth and it's pretty hard to keep enough pressure near weld when you're in vacuum. Lasers have the smallest heat affected zone of all welding, so you need to get rid of smaller amount of heat after welding, pretty usable when you don't have atmosphere around you to cool your welds.
- namibj 2y agoNo, the needed arc can be metal vapor producing and using more thermionic electron emission than plasma current based. Current is also self-lensing.
- bloggie 2y agoFiber lasers can be quite efficient and the weld process itself is very efficient as less energy is delivered to the metal to perform the weld. Good beam control ensures a minimum of metal is melted to perform the weld and also doesn't get too hot to vaporize and sputter. I don't know about overall efficiency but laser welding continues to displace electrical welding due to a much higher level of process variable control.