Dresden represents a unique cluster of know-how in the field of joining and welding. The Fraunhofer IWS and the Institute of Manufacturing Technology of the TU Dresden have been conducting research on this topic for many years. Besides thermal procedures like laser beam welding and arc welding, joining processes such as friction stir welding, magnetic pulse welding, mechanical joining, adhesive bonding and hybrid technologies are of particular interest.

OUR COMPETENCES

The Fraunhofer IWS offers comprehensive welding technology solutions. The approach includes the analysis of material behaviors and influence of the joining process on part performance. The welding process is optimized to address specific material and application requirements and the solutions include the implementation of adequate system technologies. Optimized application of various welding processes The activities focus on the development of new processes and the further development of existing welding processes.

Examples are:

• welding process with minimized heat deposition,
• processes to weld hard-to-weld materials,
• laser induction welding to crack-free join heat treatable steels and hot crack prone alloys as well as to improve the formability of welded highest strength steel sheet metal,
• laser beam welding of material adapted filler materials to weld hot crack prone Alalloys as well as mixed material connections from steel and cast iron,
• laser hybrid welding, e.g. for the welding of parts made from high- and highest strength fine-grained construction steels,
• welding with fiber lasers of highest beam quality,
• adhesive bonding of non-weldable materials and connections made from dissimilar materials,
• development of laser and plasma assisted processes to prepare surfaces for adhesive bonding, and of laser assisted bonding processes to join thermally sensitive  materials.