Hanma HT Handheld Fibre Laser Welding and Cleaning Machine

Hanma HT Handheld Fibre Laser Welding and Cleaning Machine

The Hanma HT is a seventh-generation handheld fibre laser welding machine for manual work that has to be accurate. It is supplied as HT1500, HT2000 or HT3000, rated for a maximum applicable laser power of 1500 W, 2000 W or 3000 W, with the source coupled to the head through a QBH fibre interface at a wavelength of 1064 nm. The HW980 head weighs no more than 600 g and is 42 mm wide, which is what makes it practical to hold through a full shift rather than for a few short seams.

The beam is shaped by a Ø20 mm collimating lens with a 50 mm focal length and a Ø20 mm focusing lens with a 150 mm focal length, through a maximum clear aperture of 16 mm. The oscillation module together with the focusing lens gives a spot adjustable from 1 to 4 mm: a wide spot spreads the energy across a joint and copes with imperfect fit-up, a narrow one concentrates it where the material is thin or the weld must stay small. Welding runs in continuous, spot or oscillating mode, and wire feed with 1.0, 1.2 or 1.6 mm filler wire is available where a gap has to be bridged.

The same head also carries a cleaning mode, so one machine covers both welding and surface cleaning without changing equipment. Parameters are set from a touchscreen and can be changed at the workpiece through the integrated Wi-remote, which saves walking back to the cabinet between passes. Further control functions include fine PWM adjustment, ramp-up and ramp-down, and delay jet; the controller interface works with 24 V DC, RS485, a PWM signal and solenoid valve control.

Above 500 W the head must be water cooled. The cabinet has its own chiller, filled with 15 – 20 L of distilled or deionised water, so the workshop does not need a separate water supply; the limits for that internal circuit are at least 1.8 L/min (0.48 gpm) of flow, an inlet pressure of 170 – 520 kPa (30 – 60 psi), water hardness below 250 mg/L as CaCO₃, a pH of 6 – 8 and particles no larger than 200 µm. Those figures are not decoration — dirty or hard water scales the cooling passages and shortens the life of the optics. Shielding gas is argon at 99.998%, nitrogen at 99.99% or helium at 99.998%, fed through a 6 mm hose to a Ø12 mm nozzle 80 mm long, made to a tolerance of −0.02 mm to −0.04 mm. The lenses are protected against spatter burns and particles.

On site the machine needs a single-phase 220 V supply for the 1500 W and 2000 W models or a three-phase 380 V supply for the 3000 W model, a dedicated earth of no more than 4 Ω, and argon or nitrogen at 0.15 – 0.3 MPa through a pressure regulator. The full list is under Site requirements in the specifications. With the dedicated cutting nozzle the same head also makes simple manual cuts.

The machine suits fabrication shops doing manual sheet metal welding, assembly work on thin gauges, and repair and maintenance welding where the part cannot be taken to a fixed welding cell.

Welding capacity

Efficient welding thickness runs from 0.5 to 6 mm, and the joint decides it as much as the power does: a butt joint has to be penetrated through the full thickness, while a corner or lap joint lets the same power carry more material.

• 1500 W — 2 – 3 mm butt joints, 3 – 4 mm corner and lap joints
• 2000 W — 3 – 4 mm butt, 4 – 5 mm corner and lap
• 3000 W — 5 – 6 mm butt, 6 – 8 mm corner and lap

These are the ranges for sound single-pass handheld welding on carbon steel at a reasonable travel speed. On automated or robotic stations with beam oscillation the workable thickness is somewhat higher. Above these ranges welding is still possible but slower, sometimes in several passes and with less consistent quality; for heavy structural work over 6 – 8 mm, MIG or a dedicated process remains the right answer.

Why laser rather than MIG, TIG or stick

On thin sheet — 0.5 to 3 mm stainless steel, aluminium or mild steel — the classic processes put a lot of heat into a small area. The sheet distorts easily and spatter or slag has to be cleaned off by hand before painting, polishing or anodising. Laser welding concentrates the energy on a very small area: the heat-affected zone stays minimal and the bead is fine and clean, with no spatter. Parts leave the welding station close to finished, with far less dressing work and fewer rejects caused by distortion.

• Minimal distortion — a narrow heat-affected zone, which is what matters on thin sheet that stays visible in the finished part
• No spatter — a clean bead, with no slag or spatter to grind off
• Short learning curve — new operators reach a consistent quality far sooner than they do on TIG
• Productivity — faster travel on thin sheet, with fewer passes

Set against the classic processes: laser covers 0.5 – 6 mm depending on power, where MIG starts at 0.6 mm, TIG at 0.3 mm and stick only above 2 mm and is unsuited to thin sheet. Thermal distortion is minimal, against moderate for MIG and TIG and high for stick. The bead needs no cleaning, where MIG leaves spatter and stick leaves slag to be brushed off. Travel on thin sheet is very fast, the finish is excellent, and stainless steel, aluminium and thin to medium steel are all in range. The trade-off is the initial cost of the equipment, which is higher than for the classic processes; running cost stays low, because shielding gas consumption is modest and filler is often unnecessary.

Applications

• Channel letters — fine joints between the face and the returns, with no distortion visible on the surface the customer sees
• Light boxes and frame structures — fast assembly of thin profiles and sheets, with a clean bead that does not spoil the seal
• Signage totems and poles — light structural joints at the base and at the supports, without distorting the visible panels
• Perforated and fretwork decorative panels — thin elements fixed without burning or distorting them, keeping the precision of the design
• Support structures and brackets — quick joints, ready for electrostatic or spray painting with no extra grinding step
• Manual welding of sheet metal fabrications and enclosures
• Seam and spot welding on thin-gauge assemblies
• Welding with filler wire where joint gaps have to be bridged
• Oscillating welds on wider joints and fillets
• Surface cleaning using the head's cleaning mode
• Repair and maintenance welding of parts that cannot be moved