Thousands of laser welds have launched and come back from space proving the welds are strong enough not only for rockets but other industries, said Rex Alexandre, former senior welding engineer for SpaceX and principal engineer at the Handheld Laser Institute, during an OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit session at the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Other industries have started adopting codes and standards, including the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code and the Canadian Welding Bureau, he said. 

Alexandre said his first introduction to handheld lasers was while at SpaceX. 

“Elon one night was watching TikTok videos and saw a handheld laser on TikTok,” Alexandre said. “He bought me a handheld laser on Amazon and shipped it to me.” 

Alexandre said he was terrified of it and purposely didn’t buy a transformer to make it work to avoid using it. 

About a year later, he saw IPG Photonics had released a handheld laser. 

“I thought, ‘You know, there’s got to be something here. It’s time for me to go buy one,’” Alexandre said. “I pulled it out of the crate. I looked at it. It was still terrifying. I put it back in the crate for a few months and, eventually, I got to a point where I was forced to use it.”

Alexandre said the first challenge was some welds smaller than Tic Tacs. The handheld laser welder worked, he said. However, he didn’t see any other applications for it. 

More time passed then Alexandre said he learned IPG released a wire feeder to go with the laser. 

He purchased one and had IPG come out to SpaceX and teach him how to use it. 

“It was a game changer,” Alexandre said. “The wire feeder controls your travel speed and makes it really quite simple for almost anyone to make a high-quality weld. At that point, I was convinced that this had some sort of potential in the future but I didn’t know how to use it or where to use it appropriately.” 

Alexandre started testing in his lab. He started to do a lot of cross-sections, followed by mechanical tests on each. 

“Once I finally convinced myself it could be doable, we started moving into some very early production applications at SpaceX,” Alexandre said. “I tried for months to convince people to let me hand laser weld their parts. Eventually, the poor staff had no other option.”

Hand laser welds started to be used on structural components and eventually the nose cone. 

There were challenges early on, he said. 

“How do we keep the beam in the right place? How do we keep our hands out of harm’s way and how do we keep our eyes safe?”

Alexandre said there isn’t a school to teach someone how to laser weld. He added SpaceX had to build its own training program. 

“It takes a lot of time to develop individual welds for specific applications,” Alexandre said. “I had a bunch of different welds that I developed and qualified for these unique applications. I started training people across the company.” 

Alexandre said he consolidated all of the weld data, and created standardized procedures and design guidelines. He added it was all placed into a coherent document for design engineers. 

Over time, troubleshooting, user guides, and inspection criteria documents were added to internal web pages. 

Alexandre said, “How do we know that we have the right size weld? How do we know that it’s performing adequately and giving us the strength that we need? What are the typical defects that we were getting and how do we repair these defects? You guys are all automotive repair, but we have to repair rockets too. So how do we develop procedures to go repair these things in the factory?”

After years of developing information, a formal training and qualification program was created, Alexandre said.

“Before I left SpaceX, I would sit down at lunch and people would be talking about using it like it was no big deal, like it was MIG welding,” Alexandre said. “Today, SpaceX has over 100 light welds, hundreds of trained operators, and thousands of these flight critical welds that not only have launched on the world’s most powerful rocket but have gone to space and came back.” 

Many people have concerns when they think about laser welding, Alexandre said. He said they often first think it is fake, unsafe, or isn’t strong enough to meet code. 

“It is safe, it is strong and it absolutely can be done to code,” Alexandre said. 

However, the industry needs more knowledge, he said. 

“Nobody really knows widely what all of our laser light parameters do,” Alexandre said. “How do we teach people what it does and how do we train these people and qualify them?”

Alexandre said that’s why he left SpaceX. 

“I am now teaching and educating people on how to use handheld laser welding and giving them the knowledge they need to go deploy it successfully in the real world in industrial applications.” 

Dean Brennan, IPG Photonics sales manager, said laser welders can reach up to 10,000 to 20,000 watts of power in a laser beam in a 1 square millimeter space. He said arc welding, or mig or tig, reaches about 50 watts of power in the same area. 

“A great welder is someone that can control heat the best,” Brennan said. “Laser welding actually takes some of that expertise out.” 

Laser welding can create a higher quality weld faster, he said. 

Jeff Poole, I-CAR lead subject matter expert, said he was amazed at spot and fillet welds IPG did on coupons he sent to the company. 

“They’re not all perfect but wow, the prospect of being able to replicate that just blows my mind,” Poole said. 

I-CAR has been exploring the viability of laser welding in collision repair.

Poole said he started welding in 1979 after his dad purchased a mig welder.

“We have to think forward,” Poole said. “We have to think about what are the opportunities down the road? We are going to be investigating this on some of the high-strength and ultra-high strength steels so that we can better understand.”

Poole said he still has concerns about laser welders. He said there needs to be a better understanding of the tool and training before it should be used in the collision repair industry. 

“I want the technician fixing my car to truly and intimately understand the process that they’re doing,” Poole said. 

Brennan said his company is selling light welds to the OEMs but they are not using them for the primary weld. 

“They’re using them on the roofs and things like that,” Brennan said. 

The 2022 Honda Civic incorporates a laser-brazed roof, extending that technique to the OEM’s entry-level vehicles, and uses a greater amount of high strength steel (HSS) and aluminum to save weight.

He said OEMs are also using laser welders to repair cars while still on the line. 

Brennan said it is likely laser repairs will become more popular as electric vehicles do. 

“You don’t have to worry about electronics,” Brennan said. “You don’t have to take the battery out because there’s no electrons. You’re using light. The batteries that are in your cars, on an EV, they are laser welded. That’s how they are assembled.” 

Collision repairers will save a lot of time using a laser welder on EVs because they won’t have to worry about the batteries, he said. 

Poole said the industry follows OEM recommendations when doing repairs and, in some cases, this includes specific tooling equipment. 

“I’m hopeful to see a day where we start to see this as an accepted process,” Poole said. 

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Photo of Dean Brennan, IPG Photonics sales manager, Rex Alexandre, former senior welding engineer for SpaceX and principal engineer at the Handheld Laser Institute and Jeff Poole, I-CAR lead subject matter expert during the OEM Summit Nov. 7/Lurah Lowery.