Airbag Laser Welder

Automotive Laser welding of the airbag igniter operates at 24 parts per minute. The pre-consolidated powder and header are secured in place as a totally contained laser welds the can to the header body through the sidewall of the can.

This machine is used to weld the Can to the Header after final powder load and consolidation.  The complete Igniter assemblies are transferred in from the Output Powder Loader in either plastic tubes, or a direct transfer using an in-line vibratory feeder. The machine is built around a 16 station cam driven rotary index. In one case, the Igniter tubes are manually loaded into a tube unloader while the other case, are direct transferred from the previous process. In both cases, the Igniters are automatically transferred using an in-line vibratory feeder and then loaded with the pins facing up into the index table. The indexer nest is a hole that the Igniter are loaded into. At the weld station, the Igniter is lifted up in the nest by the bottom and top spindles that clamps with the force that is necessary to be sure the Header S/A is properly seated in the Can. A stepper motor then rotates both spindles up to 60 RPM.  Once the speed is attained, the Laser is fired and welds the can to the header for a distance of 400 degrees before shutting off.  The part is unclamped and lowered back down into the nest before it indexes to the next station. Good parts and bad parts are unloaded at the same station and sorted into plastic jars by multi-position parts placer that moves over a system of drop tubes.