Patent ID: 8110774

Claim:
A laser welding method, the method comprising: providing a storage medium containing stored data about possible welding defects and associated repair welding parameters corresponding to different repair welding strategies, wherein the repair welding parameters comprise re-welding with reduced welding speed, re-welding with higher laser power, re-welding with reduced laser power, and re-welding with a defocused laser beam; welding a workpiece with a laser to produce weldings on the workpiece, wherein welding the workpiece comprises moving a laser processing beam along a predetermined path; monitoring the produced weldings for defective weld regions formed along the weldings; and, in response to detecting one or more defective weld regions formed along the monitored weldings: determining and storing a position of each of the one or more defective weld regions; comparing the one or more defective weld regions with the stored data about possible welding defects; selecting one or more repair welding parameters from among the associated repair welding parameters based on the comparison; and then moving the laser processing beam back to the position of each of the one or more defective weld regions and performing a repair welding along the one or more defective weld regions by moving the laser processing beam along a portion of the predetermined path including the one or more defective weld regions in accordance with the selected one or more repair welding parameters.