Solutions
BBW has relied on TRUMPF lasers since 2005. Hans Bürger, joint managing director of BBW and father of Andreas Bürger, explains: "No matter what we envisioned, TRUMPF was always on hand to provide flexible, innovative solutions. At the same time, laser technology has continued to develop rapidly." Since then, BBW has consistently invested in the latest laser systems on the market and continuously expanded its portfolio. BBW purchases the beam sources from TRUMPF and designs the requisite systems in-house, tailoring them in its development department to meet specific requirements and customer projects.
Implementation
BBW has a metallurgical laboratory to ensure that the components are produced with maximum quality and precision. Workers also carry out a detailed feasibility study at the start of each project and analyse initial tests in their in-house laboratory. BBW frequently handles multiple process steps in laser processing and post-processing, extending all the way to the production of complete assemblies. "And when current technology limits our goals, we initiate research to overcome those barriers," Bürger continues.
As part of an international research project with the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM), they worked on improving the welding of aluminium-copper mixed joints. The result was that the joining process effectively minimised the mixing of metals in the seam, preventing the formation of undesirable intermetallic phases or alloys. During their in-house development project "Weldshape", they looked into hot cracking of the aluminium alloy AW6060, which is very susceptible to it. The solution they came up with was a process featuring dynamic beam shaping on a custom-built laser system equipped with a 16-kW singlemode laser and a high-performance scanner. This is because BBW is at the forefront of laser technology, making beam shaping increasingly relevant for their operations.
