Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 6
Claim 1
Independent Claim
90 words
A welding process using a laser beam for joining mating metal pieces by converging the laser beam toward a see-through groove formed between opposed butting edges of the two metal pieces without use of any backing strip, wherein a filler wire is continuously supplied into said see-through groove, the gap of said see-through groove being in a range between 0.1 mm and double the diameter of the filler wire, and a converged spot of the laser beam is only on the filler wire to effect welding along said see-through groove.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
90 words
A welding process using a laser beam for joining mating metal pieces by converging the laser beam toward a see-through groove formed between opposed butting edges of the two metal pieces without use of any backing strip, wherein a filler wire is continuously supplied into said see-through groove, the gap of said see-through groove being in a range between 0.1 mm and double the diameter of the filler wire, and a converged spot of the laser beam is only on the filler wire to effect welding along said see-through groove.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
29 words
A welding process using a laser beam according to claim 1, wherein said converged spot of the laser beam has a power density of 5×10 5 w/cm 2 .
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
108 words
A welding process using a laser beam according to claim 1, wherein the two metal pieces arranged to form the see-through groove between their opposed edges have a thickness in a range from 0.2 mm to a value equal to the diameter of said filler wire, the gap of said see-through groove is in a range from 0.1 mm to a value equal to the diameter of said filler wire, said laser beam is converged to form a focused spot in said see-through groove on the level of the surface of said metal pieces, and said filler wire is supplied to said focused spot of the laser beam.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
99 words
The welding process using a laser beam according to claim 1, wherein the two metal pieces arranged to form the see-through groove between their opposed edges have a thickness greater than the diameter of said filler wire, the gap of said see-through groove is in a range from 0.1 mm to a value equal to double the diameter of said filler wire, said laser beam is converged to form a focused spot in said see-through groove on the level of the surface of said metal piece, and said filler is supplied to said focused spot of the laser beam.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
96 words
The welding process using a laser beam according to claim 1, wherein the two metal pieces arranged to form the see-through groove between their opposed edges have a thickness greater than the diameter of said filler wire, the gap of said see-through groove is in a range from a value equal to the diameter of said filler wire to a value equal to double the diameter of said filler wire, and said converged spot of the laser beam is formed on top of said filler wire in said see-through groove to thereby melt said filler wire.