Patent ID: 6940036

Claim:
A process for laser-plasma hybrid welding, in which, to weld a workpiece, a laser beam and a plasma jet are brought together in a process region close to the workpiece, the plasma jet being a free microwave-induced plasma jet generated by: generating microwaves in a high-frequency microwave source, guiding the microwaves in a hollow waveguide, introducing a process gas into a microwave-transparent tube, which comprises a gas inlet opening and a gas outlet opening, at a pressure p≧1 bar, the process gas being introduced into the microwave-transparent tube through the gas inlet opening in such a manner that it has a tangential flow component, generating a plasma in the microwave-transparent tube by microwave absorption, generating a plasma jet by introduction of the plasma into a working space through a metallic nozzle arranged at the gas outlet opening of the tube, and welding a workpiece in the working space with the laser beam and the plasma jet.