Laser welding system

A laser welder for welding a pair of work pieces of dissimilar thickness, comprising:

• a laser weld head configured to movably project a laser beam onto a minimized gap formed between a pair of adjacent, substantially flat and substantially horizontally-oriented work pieces of dissimilar thickness formed with respective precision sheared edges that are positioned in an abutting relationship and are exposed to the laser weld head, which is operative to weld the precision sheared edges by forming a weld bead seam therebetween;
• wherein the laser beam is incident on the gap with a compound angle, measured relative to the vertical direction substantially normal to the work pieces, that includes a leading angle component substantially in the direction of movement of the laser weld beam and a leaning component substantially in the direction normal to the gap and leaning towards one of the work pieces away from the vertical direction;
• and
• wherein the laser beam is focused upon the work pieces to have between about 70% and about 85% of its cross-sectional area incident upon the thinner work piece.