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Mar 26,
2025Why Do Cracks Still Appear in the Mold After Welding?Get professional support now
√ Make an appointment for precision mold repair welding:
The recurrence of cracks in molds after welding repair is a headache for many enterprises. This not only increases the rework cost but may also lead to the complete scrapping of the mold. As San Laser, which has more than ten years of experience in mold repair, we have deeply analyzed the five fundamental causes of mold cracks after welding and provided verified solutions to help you completely solve this problem.
1. Improper Control of Preheating/Post-heating Temperature (The Root Cause of 50% of Crack Problems)
Problem Analysis
• Direct welding of H13 hot work die steel without preheating it to 500-600℃, resulting in thermal stress cracks.
• Insufficient post-heating temperature or too rapid cooling (such as air cooling instead of furnace cooling).
• Failure to adopt segmented preheating for large molds.
Solutions
✅ Preheating Temperature Guidelines:
Mold Material Minimum Preheating Temperature Ideal Temperature Range
H13 Steel 450℃ 500-600℃
P20 Steel 300℃ 350-400℃
Aluminum Alloy 150℃ 200-250℃
✅ Use an infrared thermometer to monitor the temperature in real time.
✅ For thick and large molds, adopt stepped temperature rise (≤100℃ per hour).2. Mismatch Between the Welding Material and the Base Metal (The Cause of 30% of Cracks)
Key Misunderstandings
• Using common welding wires to weld mold steel (such as using ER70S-6 to weld H13 steel).
• Failing to consider the matching degree of chemical compositions (especially the contents of C, Cr, and Mo).
• Ignoring the drying of welding materials (risk of hydrogen-induced cracks).
Professional Suggestions
Material Matching Table:
Base Metal Recommended Welding Material Characteristics
H13 ER4145/ER4340 Good thermal fatigue resistance
S7 ER310 High toughness
Aluminum Alloy 6061 ER4043 Strong crack resistance
Operation Key Points:
• Welding materials must be dried before welding (stainless steel electrodes at 150℃ for 1 hour).
• Flux-cored welding wires should be preferred (such as TGF-308L).3. Failure to Eliminate Welding Residual Stress (The Invisible Killer)
Principle of Stress Generation
• Difference in cooling rates between the weld zone and the base metal.
• High structural restraint degree (such as the corner parts of the mold).
• Improper control of interlayer temperature during multi-layer welding.
Elimination Methods1.Post-weld Heat Treatment:
o Stress-relief annealing (for H13 steel: 600-650℃ for 2 hours).
o Local induction heating (suitable for molds that cannot be put into the furnace as a whole).2.Mechanical Stress Release:
o Hammering the weld seam (using a round-head hammer).
o Vibration aging treatment (VSR technology).4. Incorrect Welding Process Parameters (Common Mistakes Made by Novices)
Typical Error Cases
• Excessively large current → Coarse grains → 30% increase in crack sensitivity.
• Too fast welding speed → Poor fusion → Micro-cracks.
• Impure shielding gas (argon gas purity < 99.99%).
Parameter Optimization Guidelines
Material Current (A) Voltage (V) Gas Flow Rate (L/min)
H13 Steel 90-120 10-12 Ar 8-10
P20 Steel 70-100 9-11 Ar+2%CO2 10
Aluminum Alloy 60-80 12-14 Ar 12-155. Problems with the Original State of the Mold (Easily Overlooked Factors)
Hidden Risks
• Micro-cracks already exist in the mold (MT/PT detection is required first).
• Improper quenching of the material (such as a sudden change in hardness gradient).
• Surface contamination (oil stains, scale).
Pre-repair Inspection Checklist1.Magnetic particle testing (MT) or penetrant testing (PT).
2.Hardness testing (ensuring that the matrix HRC is within the weldable range).
3.Cleaning the welding area with acetone.
Industry-leading Solution: San Laser Intelligent Welding System
In response to the above problems, we have developed the new 2025 model of fiber laser mold welding machine:1. Adjust parameters at any time: The controller can be freely moved to about 4 meters away from the machine, avoiding repair errors caused by untimely parameter adjustment.
2. Stable welding head without shaking: The newly upgraded universal wheels and lightweight welding head avoid the slight shaking that may occur to the welding head during the welding process.
Lens cooling: The lens is cooled by a water chiller, avoiding lens breakage during use and increasing its service life.
Get professional support now
√ Make an appointment for precision mold repair welding:
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Mar 25,
2025Advantages of QCW Lasers Over Fiber Lasers and Future Development Trends!QCW lasers excel in high-precision, low-thermal-impact scenarios and are evolving toward broader industrial integration, supported by advancements in efficiency and application-specific innovations.
Advantages of QCW Lasers:
Higher Peak Power: QCW (Quasi-Continuous Wave) lasers achieve peak power up to 10 times higher than continuous-wave (CW) fiber lasers by operating in pulsed mode with low duty cycles. This enables efficient processing of high-reflectivity materials (e.g., copper, gold) and precision applications requiring intense energy bursts.
Cost Efficiency: By utilizing low-duty-cycle operation, QCW lasers reduce power consumption and thermal load on components, significantly lowering production and operational costs compared to CW lasers delivering equivalent peak power.
Flexibility in Operation: QCW lasers can switch between pulsed and continuous modes, offering adaptability for diverse applications. In continuous mode, they maintain 30% higher average power than standard CW lasers, balancing versatility with performance.
Reduced Thermal Impact: The intermittent pulse delivery minimizes heat accumulation, making QCW lasers ideal for processing thin materials, heat-sensitive components (e.g., semiconductors), and applications demanding minimal thermal distortion or micro-crack formation.
Future Development Directions:
Technological Optimization: Advancements will focus on enhancing beam quality, power stability, and energy conversion efficiency. Innovations in diode pumping and fiber design aim to further amplify peak power while maintaining compact and reliable systems.
Application Expansion: QCW lasers are poised to penetrate emerging sectors such as photovoltaic manufacturing (e.g., solar cell doping), electric vehicle battery welding, and medical device processing, driven by their precision and thermal management advantages.
Market Growth: With a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of **% from 2024 to 2030, QCW lasers will see increased adoption in industrial automation, particularly in Asia-Pacific markets, where demand for high-performance, cost-effective solutions is rising.
Integration with Smart Manufacturing: Future systems will emphasize compatibility with AI-driven automation and real-time monitoring, enabling adaptive control for complex manufacturing processes.
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Mar 25,
2025Application of laser welding in mold industry!Molds play an extremely important role in modern industry, and their quality directly determines the quality of products. Improving the service life and precision of molds and shortening the manufacturing cycle of molds are technical problems that many companies urgently need to solve, but during the use of molds, failure forms such as collapse, deformation, wear, and even breakage often occur. Therefore, laser welding technology is also necessary for the repair of molds. The following introduces the application of laser welding in the mold industry.
A typical example of the application of laser welding in the mold industry is the mold repair laser welding machine. This equipment is easy to use for operators, can greatly improve the speed of welding, and the repair effect and precision are close to beauty, which makes the equipment widely used in the field of mold welding. The heat affected area of the repair welding of this welder is very small, and it has the advantages of not needing to heat in advance, and the welded workpiece will not anneal after work. This laser welding technology can not only be used for the repair of mold wear, but also can achieve precise welding of small and precise areas, and there will be no deformation or pores after repair. SanLaser has more than ten years of R&D and production experience, leading peers in technology and integration. Since its establishment, the company has always paid attention to the research and development of laser technology and the development needs of customers, and is committed to providing each enterprise with complete material processing solutions.
Mold laser welding repair method:
1. TIG welding repair uses the burning arc between the continuously fed welding wire and the workpiece as the heat source, and the gas sprayed from the welding torch nozzle protects the arc for welding. At present, argon arc welding is a commonly used method and can be applied to most major metals, including carbon steel and alloy steel. MIG welding is suitable for stainless steel, aluminum, magnesium, copper, titanium, zirconium and nickel alloys. Due to its low price, it is widely used in mold repair welding, but it has disadvantages such as large heat affected area and large welding points. At present, it has been gradually replaced by laser welding in precision mold repair.
2. Laser cladding repair Laser welding is a welding method that uses a laser beam focused by a high-power coherent monochromatic photon flow as a heat source. This welding method usually includes continuous power laser welding and pulsed power laser welding. The advantage of laser welding is that it does not need to be carried out in a vacuum, but the disadvantage is that the penetration is not as strong as electron beam welding. Laser welding can perform precise energy control, so it can achieve the welding of precision devices. It can be applied to many metals, especially to solve the welding of some difficult-to-weld metals and dissimilar metals. It has been widely used in mold repair.
The mold laser welding machine is specially designed for the mold industry and is used to repair precision molds, such as digital products, mobile phones, toys, automobiles, motorcycles and other mold manufacturing industries. Through mold repair, the original mold can be fully utilized again, greatly saving
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Mar 24,
2025How to clean shoe molds, glass molds, rubber molds, etc.?With the development of economy, a large number of rubber products have appeared in the market, and the molds for producing these rubber products are easily contaminated. To maintain normal precision, it is necessary to remove the dirt on the surface. Conventional cleaning methods cannot meet the needs of production. It is under this demand that laser technology is applied to mold cleaning, such as san-laser's laser cleaning machine.
Laser cleaning is a new type of industrial cleaning technology. It has the advantages of green environmental protection, high cleaning efficiency, and low labor intensity. It is a cleaning technology with great development potential and practical value. SAN analyzed the causes of surface contamination of rubber product molds and determined that the main adsorption force between the rubber particles on the mold surface and the matrix is the van der Waals force. The rubber particles adsorbed on the mold surface are removed by throwing away. SAN analyzed the mechanism of laser cleaning, established a heat conduction model for laser cleaning of rubber product molds, and solved the heat conduction equation using the finite difference method. SAN used ANSYS software to simulate the temperature distribution when the laser heat source cleaned the surface of the rubber product mold, and used ANSYS software to calculate the maximum temperature of the mold surface under different laser power densities. The linear equation between the power density and the maximum temperature of the mold surface was obtained through the obtained data, and the theoretical value of the damage threshold when the laser cleaned the mold was predicted to be 1611w/cm2. By calculating the adsorption force between the rubber particles and the mold surface and the sinking force during laser irradiation, it was found that the theoretical value of the cleaning threshold when the laser cleaned 5μm rubber particles was 500W/cm2, while the cleaning threshold of 1μm rubber particles was 610W/cm2.
SAN conducted an experimental study on the laser cleaning technology of rubber product molds. Through the experiment, the effects of laser power, defocus and scanning speed on the cleaning effect were determined, and the damage threshold and cleaning threshold during laser cleaning were determined. The damage threshold was 1590W/cm2, which is very close to the theoretical value calculated earlier. The cleaning threshold is 530.2W/cm2, which means that the particle radius is mainly between 1-5μm. After determining the cleaning threshold and damage threshold during laser cleaning through experiments, the practical application of laser cleaning technology for rubber product molds was studied. After using laser cleaning technology to clean seal molds, it is easy to see the advantages of laser cleaning technology. Laser cleaning will be the mainstream of mold cleaning in the future, and laser cleaning technology will definitely play an important role in the mold industry.
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Mar 24,
2025QCW Laser vs. Fiber Laser for Mold Welding: Key Differences!At present, more and more people in the market are inquiring about QCW laser products, but many people are not very familiar with this product. So, we will discuss the difference between QCW laser and fiber laser for mold welding machine products.
1. Operating Principle
QCW (Quasi-Continuous Wave) Laser: Delivers high-energy pulsed output with adjustable peak power (typically 100–500 kW) and pulse widths (ms level). Ideal for precision welding with controlled heat input.
Fiber Laser: Uses continuous or modulated continuous wave (CW) output (common power: 500–2,000 W). Excels in high-speed, deep-penetration welding.
2. Thermal Impact
QCW’s pulsed operation minimizes heat accumulation, reducing distortion in thin or heat-sensitive molds (e.g., stamping dies).
Fiber lasers generate concentrated heat, suitable for thick materials but risk higher thermal stress if unmanaged.
3. Application Scope
QCW: Preferred for small-area repairs, intricate geometries, and materials prone to cracking (e.g., hardened steel, carbide inserts).
Fiber: Optimized for high-throughput welding, large seams, and deep joints (e.g., injection mold cores).
4. Cost & Maintenance
QCW systems have higher upfront costs but lower maintenance (solid-state design, no consumables).
Fiber lasers offer lower initial investment but require periodic fiber optic component replacements.
5. Flexibility
QCW allows precise parameter tuning (pulse duration/energy) for diverse materials.
Fiber lasers prioritize speed and automation compatibility.
Summary
Choose QCW for precision, low-heat applications; opt for fiber lasers for high-speed, deep welding in industrial settings. Material thickness, part geometry, and budget are key decision factors.
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