Method Of Making Composite Camshafts

A method of making a camshaft for an internal combustion engine, comprising, laser welding a plurality of cams and a plurality of bearing assemblies to a fiber composite support tube that includes:

• providing a fiber composite support tube having a plurality of weld locations and providing each weld location with a plastic laser weldable material;
• providing a plurality of cams, providing each cam with a laser weldable portion and providing each laser weldable portion of each cam with a plastic laser weldable material;
• providing a plurality of bearing assemblies, providing each bearing assembly with a laser weldable portion and providing each laser weldable portion of each bearing assembly with a plastic laser weldable material;
• placing the plurality of cams on the fiber composite tube with each cam at a respective one of the weld locations with the plastic laser weldable material of the cam abutting the plastic laser weldable material of the weld location at which that cam was placed;
• placing the plurality of bearing assemblies on the fiber composite support tube with each bearing assembly at a respective one of the weld locations with the plastic laser weldable material of the bearing assembly abutting the plastic laser weldable material of the weld location at which that bearing assembly was placed;
• providing laser tooling that is split laser tooling for each cam and for each bearing assembly with each laser tooling associated with one of the cams or one of the bearing assemblies;
• closing the split tooling of the laser tooling associated with each cam or bearing assembly around the fiber composite support tube adjacent that cam or bearing assembly with which that laser tooling is associated and urging that cam or bearing assembly with that laser tooling against the associated weld location of the fiber composite support tube;
• generating a plurality of sets of laser beams with laser light sources of a simultaneous through transmissive infrared laser welding system with each laser beam having laser light at an absorption wavelength and with each set of laser beams associated with a respective one of laser tooling;
• and
• directing each set of laser beams to the laser tooling with which that set of laser beams is associated and with that laser tooling directing that set of laser beams to a weld path at a weld interface at which the cam or bearing assembly associated with that laser tooling is welded to the associated weld location of the fiber composite support tuber to simultaneously radiate the entire weld path with laser light at the absorption wavelength.