Optical coherence tomography for in-situ weld seam monitoring in absorber-free laser transmission welding

Maiwald F, Fries F, Schulze J, Honnerová P, Hierl S, Schmidt M (2025)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2025

Publisher: SPIE

Book Volume: 13350

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Event location: San Francisco, CA, USA

ISBN: 9781510684485

DOI: 10.1117/12.3040607

Abstract

Optical and medical devices are frequently made of polymers and place high demands on precision, cleanliness, and reliability of the manufacturing processes used. Absorber-free laser transmission welding is well-suited for joining these devices: the energy input is contactless, no adhesives, additives, or absorbers are required, and the fiber lasers used enable precise weld seams. As the weld seam geometry is decisive for the joint strength and thus crucial for the quality of the product, the welding process is monitored in-situ using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Subsequently, the weld seam geometry is identified automatically using the AI model "Segment Anything" (SAM), which performs semantic segmentation of the OCT data without requiring any training from the user. Welding tests using polyamide 6 indicate that the seam size is measured with an accuracy of a few hundredths of a millimeter, showing excellent agreement with microscopic images of microtome sections.

Authors with CRIS profile

Michael Schmidt Lehrstuhl für Photonische Technologien (LPT)

Involved external institutions

Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg (OTH) DE Germany (DE) University of West Bohemia (UWB) CZ Czech Republic (CZ)

How to cite

APA:

Maiwald, F., Fries, F., Schulze, J., Honnerová, P., Hierl, S., & Schmidt, M. (2025). Optical coherence tomography for in-situ weld seam monitoring in absorber-free laser transmission welding. In Jan Kleinert, Godai Miyaji, Gwenn Pallier (Eds.), Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. San Francisco, CA, USA: SPIE.

MLA:

Maiwald, Frederik, et al. "Optical coherence tomography for in-situ weld seam monitoring in absorber-free laser transmission welding." Proceedings of the Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing, LAMOM XXX 2025, San Francisco, CA, USA Ed. Jan Kleinert, Godai Miyaji, Gwenn Pallier, SPIE, 2025.

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