When it comes to laser welding in the automotive industry, its origins can be traced back to the 1980s, when the technology was primarily used for welding car bodies. Nearly four decades later, today’s laser welding production lines have become a widespread fixture in automobile manufacturing—and have emerged as one of the industry’s most remarkable achievements.

　　The automotive industry first adopted laser welding technology in Germany. In the 1980s, European automakers such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen from Germany, and Volvo from Sweden were among the pioneers in using laser welding for sheet-metal components like car roofs, bodies, and side frames. By the 1990s, U.S. giants General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler had also raced to introduce laser welding into their manufacturing processes—though starting slightly later, their adoption quickly gained momentum. Following this trend, Italy’s Fiat began integrating laser welding into the assembly of most steel panel components, while Japan’s Nissan, Honda, and Toyota soon followed suit, incorporating the technology into the production of body panels. Since then, high-strength steel laser-welded assemblies have become increasingly popular in automotive body manufacturing due to their superior performance characteristics.

The booming automotive market is boosting the growth of the laser welding industry.

　　As China’s manufacturing sector undergoes transformation and upgrading, numerous industries are increasingly demanding higher standards for product welding quality. Against this backdrop, the adoption of laser welding has been steadily rising across a wide range of sectors—particularly in the processing and manufacturing of metal materials and components, where its penetration rate remains exceptionally high. Currently, the automotive industry stands out as a key application market for laser welding in China.

(Data sourced from the Laser Processing Committee's statistical data)

　　Both the previously released "Mid- to Long-Term Development Plan for the Automotive Industry" and the "Development Plan for the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021–2035)" send a clear and important signal: electric vehicles are a firmly established national industrial strategy, and the policy direction aimed at fostering their sustained, healthy growth remains unwavering. These policies are actively driving robust, orderly development across multiple dimensions, poised to deliver long-term benefits to the thriving growth of the new energy vehicle sector.

(Data source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers)

　　In 2015, China became the world’s largest market for new-energy vehicle sales, and over the past six years, China’s NEV sales have consistently maintained a steady upward trend. Concurrently, the domestic production of NEVs and the lithium-battery industry have experienced rapid growth. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first half of 2021, China’s NEV sales exceeded 1.2 million units, with cumulative installed capacity of power batteries reaching 52.5 GWh. Notably, the total sales volume has already matched the full-year level of 2019, signaling that this emerging growth driver continues to expand rapidly.

　　Currently, the global automotive industry is accelerating its shift toward electrification, with governments around the world offering policy support—such as consumer incentives for purchasing electric vehicles—to boost the steady rise in global sales of new energy vehicles. According to Bank of America Global Research, from 2025 to 2040, the global penetration rate of all electric vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), is projected to climb from 23% to 67%.

(Data source: SNE Research, a global research firm specializing in emerging energy markets)

　　Global emerging energy market research firm SNE Research predicts that global new-energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 15 million units by 2025, and by 2030, global electric vehicle sales will surge to 23 million units—representing a market expansion that could grow more than tenfold. This robust new-energy vehicle market is poised to accelerate the growth of the laser welding industry.

Laser Welding Technology in Automotive Component Applications

　　A car is typically assembled from around 20,000 individual components, with iron parts making up the vast majority of these. Although they’re collectively referred to as "iron," the vehicle’s frame—which forms the structural backbone—and the body panels that define the car’s shape are crafted from steel sheets. Meanwhile, critical components like transmission housings and other box-shaped parts are made by melting iron and pouring it into molds to create intricate castings. As a result, welding plays an indispensable role in the automotive manufacturing process. From the car’s robust frame and sleek body to its engine, gears, roof, doors, seat-sliding mechanisms, airbag liners, exhaust pipes, and even the clutch assembly—virtually every major component relies on advanced welding techniques to ensure strength, precision, and durability.

Compared to traditional welding techniques such as resistance welding and carbon dioxide gas-shielded welding, laser welding demonstrates superior performance when applied to advanced alloy materials. It offers numerous advantages, including fast welding speed, excellent weld quality, high production efficiency, a large depth-to-width ratio of the weld seam, a sleek and aesthetically pleasing appearance, minimal heat input, a small heat-affected zone, and reduced susceptibility to welding-induced deformation. These benefits make laser welding an ideal choice for automotive component manufacturing, delivering exceptional efficiency, cost-effectiveness, safety, strength, and corrosion resistance. As a result, laser welding can seamlessly handle processes like spot welding, lap welding, body-in-white assembly, and component bonding in car parts—enabling significant reductions in vehicle weight, enhancing assembly precision, boosting overall structural integrity, and ultimately lowering both stamping and assembly costs during the automotive body manufacturing process.

　　Lianying Laser, driven by its pioneering work in laser welding technology, has successfully applied advanced techniques such as laser flying welding, laser wire-feeding welding, WOBBLE welding, multi-wavelength blue-light composite welding, and multi-wavelength blue-light oscillating composite welding to a wide range of automotive components—including engine exhaust manifolds, cylinder head gaskets, high-pressure manifolds, oxygen sensors, transmission shift forks, semi-shell assemblies, steering system brackets for car steering systems, guide tubes, and steering wheel assemblies. By seamlessly integrating these cutting-edge technologies with modern automotive manufacturing processes, Lianying Laser is paving the way for more innovative, lightweight solutions that will shape the future of the automotive industry.

Lianying Laser Automotive Steering Knuckle Laser Welding Line

UW Automotive Parts Partial Solutions

　　Currently, Lianying Laser boasts automated production lines for bipolar plate welding in the automotive industry, laser brazing workstations for car body-in-white roofs, sheet-metal workstations for joining dissimilar-thickness plates, laser welding stations for automotive guide tube brackets, exhaust manifold welding systems, and laser welding setups for automotive shift forks combined with gearshift shafts. Additionally, the company offers a laser cleaning station for new-energy battery box lids and a laser welding system for fuel distribution pipes. Through its extensive application expertise and cutting-edge technology, UW aims to empower manufacturers to effortlessly achieve intelligent manufacturing solutions.

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Automotive guide tube bracket laser welding workstation

　　Suitable for laser welding of automotive components such as installation brackets for car guide tubes.

　　Challenges in industry application: The workpiece features a corner weld joint, requiring an effective weld penetration depth of 80% of the plate thickness. Additionally, the workpiece surface is heavily coated with anti-rust oil, which poses significant challenges for welding.

　　Lianying Laser offers these tips: 1. During welding, keep the laser beam angle as close as possible to the workpiece edge—ideally around 20 degrees. 2. When designing fixtures and tooling, ensure tight clamping strength while carefully avoiding interference with both the workpiece and the laser beam. 3. Select an appropriate incident angle and continuously optimize process parameters such as laser power, welding speed, and defocus distance. 4. Consider adding a laser cleaning option to remove surface contaminants like oil and oxides, which helps achieve superior weld quality.

　　2. Laser Welding Workstation for Automotive Forks and Shift Shafts

　　Challenges in industrial applications: The product comprises numerous component parts that require welding across multiple processes. Oil contamination on the workpiece surface can easily result in porosity during welding.

　　Lianying Laser Reveals: 1. Robots are used, equipped with multiple sets of automated welding fixtures. 2. A fully enclosed welding enclosure features an in-house dust removal system, ensuring a safe and contamination-free working environment for manual operations.

　　3. Laser Cleaning Station for New Energy Vehicle Battery Covers

　　This equipment is designed for laser cleaning of electrophoretic paint coatings on the lids of new-energy battery boxes, targeting the paint layers around 108 circular holes with diameters ranging from 8 to 12 mm. The cleaning ensures a consistent coating thickness of 0.035 mm, achieved by integrating a galvanometer scanner with a high-precision robot and a laser rangefinder to precisely control the cleaning focal distance. This process guarantees 100% quality in cleaning accuracy while preserving the underlying galvanized layer beneath the electrophoretic coating.

　　Key features: ● Features a dedicated aluminum alloy laser housing that is easy to disassemble and maintain, boasts a sleek, modern design, and keeps the equipment lightweight. ● The device can be installed on the second floor, significantly reducing its footprint. ● Employs a spring-loaded fixture design, enabling independent clamping at up to 108 compact positions.

　　4. Laser Welding Line for Automotive Steering Mounts

　　Key Features: ● The welding station features industrial PLC control; ● It integrates automated processes such as marking, oiling, riveting, welding, and inspection, enabling seamless line-based production; ● Equipped with imported fume extractors that efficiently capture welding-generated smoke and spatter inside the filtration system, ensuring the health and safety of operators; ● The entire workstation is fully enclosed during welding, with a transparent viewing window for monitoring. All maintenance doors are interlocked with the equipment—meaning the machine automatically shuts down if any door is opened during operation—providing comprehensive protection for workers; ● A CCD-based automatic imaging monitoring system allows real-time observation of the welding process; ● A 2-axis positioner enables dynamic adjustments in real time, quickly optimizing angles for galvanometer laser welding; ● The fixture incorporates a quick-change mechanism, facilitating rapid tooling swaps to accommodate different workpieces while maintaining precise welding positions, thus achieving high-speed production throughput.

　　5. Laser Welding of Car Seat Backrests

　　Challenges in industry applications: Laser-based flying welding offers high efficiency, but robots often have to wait for manual loading of parts, resulting in a low production cycle time. Additionally, when high safety standards are required for laser welding, radiation shielding becomes essential, and it can be difficult to properly protect the moving edges of the rotary table mechanism. Finally, laser welding demands extremely precise gap control, making it particularly challenging to ensure consistent part alignment and minimal gaps between workpieces.

　　Lianying Laser Reveals: 1. Multiple rotary table workstations can be used to reduce loading and unloading cycles, enhance laser welding utilization, and improve overall production throughput. 2. The edges of the rotary table’s protective panels feature rounded profiles, providing excellent safety protection. 3. A densely packed fixture design incorporates additional pressure blocks near the weld seams, ensuring sufficient clamping force to eliminate gaps between workpieces.

　　6. Automotive Exhaust Manifold Welding Workstation

　　7. Fuel Distribution Pipe Welding Workstation

　　8. Laser Welding of Car Doors

　　Automotive component welding now utilizes high-power laser welding as a replacement for other conventional methods, resulting in minimal deformation at the welded areas, exceptional joint precision, rapid welding speeds, and superior connection strength—plus, it eliminates the need for post-weld heat treatment. Currently, Lianying Laser has established strong collaborations with several major automotive manufacturers and leading auto parts suppliers.

　　According to the national "Energy-Saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap," vehicle weight should be reduced by 20% in 2025 compared to 2015 levels, and by 35% in 2030 relative to 2015. Automotive lightweighting is an inevitable choice for the sustained and healthy development of China's automotive industry in the future. As a common core technology for energy-efficient and new-energy vehicles, laser welding plays a pivotal role in lightweighting, creating vast market opportunities in this growing sector.

　　In addition, laser welding helps reduce automotive production costs and boosts manufacturing efficiency. As global demand for automobiles continues to grow—and with the accelerating pace of automotive intelligence—integrating advanced laser processing technologies into car production has become an inevitable trend. Looking ahead, as demand for vehicles, particularly new-energy cars, keeps rising, the need for laser welding in production lines will also increase steadily, opening up vast market opportunities.

　　The Unitedwin Laser New Energy Vehicle Division focuses on the research and development of two major equipment systems: power battery modules, PACK projects, and automotive components. Leveraging the company’s strong business and technological expertise in the new energy sector, the division is dedicated to driving the upgrade and transformation of the new energy vehicle industry. Currently, the division employs over 200 professionals specializing in solution planning, project design, and software development, and holds more than 20 patented technologies. Its product lines include square-shell battery modules, pouch-type battery modules, and cylindrical battery modules, while its automotive components portfolio covers systems such as steering, car seats, engines, transmissions, and white-body structures.

　　Source: United Win Laser