Four main application areas of the laser industry

As one of the most advanced manufacturing and processing technologies in the world today, laser technology has developed from a from a very "niche" market and is becoming more and more "popular".

From the application point of view, in addition to the rapid growth in the industrial processing field, lasers have also penetrated into more emerging application fields, such as laser cleaning, 3D printing market, laser radar, laser medical beauty, 3D sensing, laser display, laser lighting, etc. These emerging applications will greatly promote the rapid development of the laser industry, especially the leading role of the laser industry in the automotive electronics and consumer electronics fields.

01 Application of laser in OLED

According to the classification of OLED production, AMOLED production can be divided into three parts: front-end BP (backplane end); middle-end EL (evaporation end); back-end MODULE (module end).

 Laser equipment is widely used for the three ends: BP end is mainly used for laser annealing; EL end is mainly used for laser cutting, LLO laser glass, FFM laser detection, etc.; MODULE end is mainly used for laser cutting, mainly used for flexible panel modules and chamfering .

02 Application of laser in lithium battery

The new energy vehicle lithium battery module production process can be divided into the battery cell section process and the module section (PACK section) process. Battery slicing equipment can be divided into pre/middle and post production processes.

Laser equipment is widely used in battery cells (mainly in the middle section) & PACK part: In the battery cell part, lithium battery equipment is mainly used for tab welding, sealing welding (seal nail & top cover welding) and other links; PACK part, the main laser equipment is used for the connection between the battery cell and the battery cell.

From the point of view of the value of lithium battery equipment, from low to high degree of automation, the investment per Gwh lithium battery equipment is between 400 million yuan and 1 billion yuan, of which laser equipment accounts for a relatively high proportion of the total investment. Equipment investment. 1GWh corresponds to a total investment of 600-70 million yuan in laser equipment. The higher the degree of automation, the higher the proportion of laser equipment.

03 The application of laser in smart phones

Lasers are widely used in smart phones and are one of the most important application scenarios for low-power lasers. Commonly used laser application scenarios in smart phones also include multiple links such as laser marking, laser cutting, and laser welding.

Moreover, smart phone laser equipment has consumer attributes. Since most laser equipment is customized equipment (different materials and different process functions require different laser equipment), the update speed of laser equipment in smart phones is much lower than that used in PCB, LED, automotive and other industries.

04 The application of laser in the automotive field

The automotive field is one of the largest areas of high-power lasers, which are mainly used for welding of complete vehicles and auto parts. At present, domestic automobile manufacturing equipment market space is expected to exceed 150 billion RMB, of which automotive welding automation equipment accounts for about 25% of the overall equipment investment, and the market space is about 40 billion RMB.

Laser equipment used in automobiles is mainly used for main-line welding and offline part processing: main-line welding is the assembly process of the entire body. In addition, in the automobile manufacturing process, in addition to the processing of the body-in-white, door, frame and other parts in the main-line welding process, there are a large number of parts that are not manufactured in the main-line welding process. The main line of laser processing can be used, such as the hardening of engine core components and transmissions. Gears, valve lifters, door hinge welding, etc.

Concluding remarks

Not only for automotive welding, but also for other industry-level applications, especially in the long-tail market such as hardware and sanitary ware, there is a huge room for upgrading and upgrading of laser equipment. From the perspective of market size, the domestic traditional cutting + welding market is in the 100 billion level, and the variable cost market for consumables/manpower is expected to exceed 20-300 billion. At present, the market size of domestic high-power laser equipment is only about 10 billion yuan, and the potential space is vast.