Pulse laser irradiation apparatus for coated metal material

Abstract

In order to obtain a weld bead having a good outer appearance with little splash of sputters or the like and a sufficient shearing force, there is provided a flash lamp control section for controlling flash lamps so as to generate two rectangular waves in a pulse wave form at every cycle of a pulse laser beam generated by a pulse YAG laser during the irradiation of the pulse laser beam on coated metal materials. The flash lamp control section is adapted to control a relationship between a peak power and a pulse width of a first rectangular wave and a peak power and a pulse width of a second rectangular wave in predetermined ranges. Under the control of the flash lamp control section, the pulse laser beam generated by the pulse YAG laser is irradiated to the coated metal materials thereby carry out the irradiating operation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.