Page 18 - MetalForming May 2010

The laser pulses at 10
Hz with beam-on time of
1.2-1.8 msec., creating 1-mm- long stitch welds on 2-mm centers to join strip to tube.
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• Power Press Machine Guarding & LO/TO Diesetting Citations
• Bellevue Tower Crane Fatality Tip Over
• Arc Flash Electrical Citation
• Roofing Employer Fall Protection
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• Cities allowed to Join Workers’ Comp.
• Refinery Fire & Chemical Accident Citations
• LO/TO Program Citations
• Employment Discrimination Claim • Dump Truck Tire/Wheel Separation
Fatality and Safety Program Citations
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Fabricated Metals
copper sheet), its Ohio entity was the obvious choice. Fabricating the coated sheet into absorber fins (called Miro- Fins), which then are marketed to flat- plate collector manufacturers, requires laser welding the sheet to copper tube. Once the collectors are installed—on top of your house, for example—
absorbed solar energy heats water or some other type of liquid
flowing through the copper tube.
To enable mass production of the laser-welded fins, Alanod Solar worked with Swiss company SunLaser Con- sulting GmbH to develop an automat- ed laser-welding line that in 2008 was declared by the European solar industry
as “the new industrial standard.”
Since 2006, SunLaser, working with system integrator MiniTec Schweiz AG, has delivered 13 of its turnkey laser- welding systems worldwide. In March, it installed one of the lines at Alanod-
Westlake Metals.
“We dedicated and kicked off pro-
duction of our new high-capac- ity laser-welding line on March 9,” says Lee, “with great fanfare and expectations. The line runs twelve 10-hr. shifts/month, process- ing the fins at 7.5 m/min. and accounts for about 15 percent of
our overall sales. The hope is that, as it has done in Europe, SunLaser will even- tually install its laser-welding produc- tion lines in several facilities throughout North America. That would allow us then to focus on providing slit mirotherm and sunselect coils to numerous collec- tor-production facilities,” says Lee.
The market potential is definitely there, as the solar-thermal industry grows and collector manufacturers become more automated and produc- tive. “Most U.S. collector manufacturers assemble the units manually,” says Lee, “at a rate of 20 to 25/day. Automated lines in Europe produce as many as 30 collectors/hr.”
Tube Straightening, Strip Profiling
The laser-welding line joins coated 0.5-mm-thick aluminum or 0.2-mm copper strip, slit to 120-mm wide, to copper tube either 10-mm or 12.7-mm dia. The strip and tube feed from coils simultaneously through the 60-ft.-long
16
METALFORMING / MAY 2010
www.metalformingmagazine.com