Advantages of Laser Welded Fin Tubes Compared With Other Types of Fin Tubes

Laser welding achieves metallurgical-grade bonding between fins and base tubes, with strength far exceeding that of traditional processes, narrow and uniform welds, small heat-affected zones, and extremely low defect rates. Its close connection makes the contact thermal resistance almost zero, significantly improves the heat transfer efficiency, and combines high-precision processing with flexible material adaptation to achieve both performance and cost advantages.

Compared with other types of fin tubes (such as high-frequency welded fin tubes, wound fin tubes, inlaid fin tubes, etc.), laser welded fin tubes have the following advantages:

Welding quality and performance

High connection strength: Laser welding can form a strong metallurgical bond between fins and base tubes, with high connection strength, and the performance indicators such as tensile strength of welds are better than many other welding methods. It can withstand higher pressure and thermal stress, and is not prone to problems such as fin shedding, ensuring the reliability of fin tubes in long-term operation.

Good weld quality: The laser welding process is precise and controllable, the weld is narrow and uniform, the heat-affected zone is small, and it can effectively reduce welding defects such as pores, slag inclusions, deformation, etc. The appearance quality of the weld is also better, and there is no need for too much subsequent processing. However, high-frequency welding and other methods may have problems such as uneven welds and large heat-affected zones that lead to changes in material properties. Wrapped fin tubes and inlaid fin tubes may have loose connections between the fins and the base tubes, and large contact thermal resistance.

Heat transfer performance

Low thermal resistance: Since laser welding achieves a close connection between the fins and the base tube, the contact thermal resistance between the two is extremely small, and heat can be efficiently transferred from the base tube to the fins, and then to the surrounding medium, thereby improving the overall heat transfer efficiency of the fin tube. In contrast, there may be gaps between the fins and the base tubes of wrapped fin tubes and inlaid fin tubes, affecting the heat transfer effect.

High fin efficiency: Laser welded fin tubes can accurately design parameters such as the shape, size, and spacing of the fins according to different heat transfer requirements, so that the fins can fully exert their heat dissipation function and improve the fin efficiency. For example, for some occasions that require enhanced heat transfer, efficient special-shaped fins can be designed, and laser welding technology can well realize the welding processing of such complex fins. Other welding methods may have certain limitations in this regard.

Processing accuracy and flexibility

High-precision processing: Laser welding has extremely high positioning accuracy and repeatability, and can accurately control the welding position and size to ensure that the installation position of the fin on the base tube is accurate and the fin spacing is uniform. This is very important for improving the overall performance and aesthetics of the fin tube, especially in some applications with high dimensional accuracy requirements, such as aerospace, electronic equipment cooling and other fields, the advantages of laser welding fin tubes are more obvious.

Flexible and changeable: Laser welding technology can easily realize the welding combination of fins and base tubes of various shapes and specifications. Whether it is conventional straight fins, spiral fins, or special fins, such as serrated fins, corrugated fins, etc., they can be efficiently processed by laser welding. Moreover, laser welding can also adapt well to base tubes and fins of different diameters and materials, and has strong flexibility and adaptability. High-frequency welding and other methods are usually relatively poor in the flexibility of processing shapes and specifications.

Material adaptability

Compatibility with multiple materials: Laser welded fin tubes have strong adaptability to materials. They can not only be used for common metal materials such as carbon steel, stainless steel, copper, aluminum, etc., but also can achieve welding between different materials, such as copper and stainless steel, aluminum and carbon steel. This provides the possibility of selecting a suitable material combination according to different use requirements and working conditions. For example, in some occasions with special corrosion resistance requirements, corrosion-resistant stainless steel base tubes and aluminum fins with good thermal conductivity can be selected for combination, and high-performance fin tubes can be made by laser welding. Some other welding methods may face greater technical difficulties in welding dissimilar materials.

Production efficiency and cost

Efficient production: Laser welding has fast speed and high production efficiency, and can complete the welding of a large number of fin tubes in a short time. Moreover, laser welding equipment is easy to realize automated production, which can reduce manual operation, improve production stability and consistency, and reduce production costs. Although the initial investment of laser welding equipment is relatively high, in the long run, its efficient production capacity and low maintenance cost can effectively reduce the production cost of unit products.

High material utilization rate: During the processing of laser welded fin tubes, due to the high welding precision, no excessive materials are needed to fill the weld or perform subsequent finishing processing, so the material utilization rate is high. In contrast, some traditional welding methods may consume more materials for repair or processing due to reasons such as larger welds and more welding defects, resulting in material waste.