Improved welding penetration of a 10‐kW industrial laser

The weld penetration of a multikilowatt CO2 laser has been increased by reducing the laser beam divergence. This near diffraction limited laser has now demonstrated that CO2 lasers are capable of full‐penetration welding of 1‐in. steel with typically 11 kW on the work. Bead‐on‐plate tests combined with previous data indicate that the penetration scales with laser power as P0.8.