The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) has provided details on the third session of its OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit that will be held during SEMA Week in November.

“OEM Summit, Session III: Laser Welding in Automotive and Aerospace Manufacturing and Developing Technologies for Repair Solutions” will focus on laser welding in the OEM manufacturing processes of each field.

The annual summit includes three sessions and will be held on Nov. 7 beginning at 12:30 p.m. as part of the 2024 SEMA Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Registering for a Repairer Driven Education (RDE) Full Series Pass includes admission to all three sessions. The early bird cost of the pass and all RDE sessions ends Friday.

Rex Alexandre, former SpaceX senior welding engineer, will join Dean Brennan, of IPG Photonics, to demonstrate how laser welding has become popularized as an integral manufacturing technique in transportation industries.

Alexandre now serves as president and principal engineer at the Handheld Laser Institute.

The institute’s mission is to educate and empower businesses and industries with knowledge and resources that can move the needle to usher in a new era of manufacturing where handheld laser welding is an industrially accepted standard process.

The mission is seemingly very fitting for the OEM Summit lineup which SCRS has always described as being designed to focus on emerging trends that influence vehicle repairability and collision industry preparation and has consistently featured companies and individuals with rich histories of producing sophisticated advancements in the automotive and collision repair fields.

Alexandre and Brennan will discuss research and testing of the application in the collision repair industry with Jeff Poole, of I-CAR. They’ll also talk about challenges and considerations for implementing the photon joining process. Research talking points will include identifying use opportunities, best practices, and industry standards governing handheld laser welding that could set the groundwork for future replacement methodology.

Attendees will learn about the engineering objectives of laser welding in a production environment and the evolving landscape of handheld laser welding technologies for repair process solutions. Attendees will gain insight into fundamental research being conducted to identify the opportunity for utilization, best practices, and industry standards governing the use of handheld laser welding that may set the groundwork for introduction as a future replacement methodology.

During April’s Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting, Scott VanHulle, I-CAR repairability technical support and OEM technical relations manager, shared an introductory presentation on laser welding.

Welds are created by focusing a high-intensity laser beam onto surfaces, which is delivered using mirrors and lenses, rapidly heating and melting the material to form a weld pool, he said. Laser welding can be done with or without filler wire. It also operates by photons rather than electrons like in traditional welding, according to VanHulle.

Laser welding can be used on steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass, nickel alloys, plastics, and titanium. There is also talk of possibly laser welding ceramics. Laser welds can be created in areas of vehicles with dissimilar materials, like laser-braised roofs, VanHulle added.

“Laser welding is something that we’ve been seeing from the OEMS for a number of years — laser-welded roofs, laser-braised roofs,” VanHulle said. “This is something that I think is going to be a game-changer in the industry.”

Show attendees are encouraged to also attend “OEM Summit, Session I: The Value of OEM Repair Information” at 12:30 p.m.

Presenters David Sosa, Dan Black, and Kelly Logan of Rivian will offer a unique look into the depth and complexity that goes into developing the OEM repair information available to the collision repair industry through a case study that will focus on the developmental life cycle of the front frame rail section concept.

Later, during “OEM Summit, Session II: How Telematics Technologies Are Evolving the Consumer Experience” at 2 p.m., a panel of executives from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, and GM Enterprise Innovation will discuss how telematics have heralded new opportunities in the relationship between drivers, vehicles, collision repair businesses, and auto insurance companies.

Images

Featured image credit: Zyabich/iStock

Panelist photos provided by SCRS

Presentation slide provided by CIC