Xinghong Optoelectronics Showcases at Wuhan Ship Exhibition: Enhancing Overall Performance of Ship Laser Welding With Core Optical Technologies

30 Sep,2026

From September 21 to 24, 2026, the Wuhan International Exhibition for Ship‑building Technology and Offshore Equipment was held at Wuhan International Expo Center. At this major industry event focusing on cutting‑edge topics including green shipping and intelligent ships, Wuhan Xinghong Optoelectronics presented its core solutions tailored for ship manufacturing, such as the XH‑ABMPR 3D dynamically adjustable intelligent welding head. Leveraging “front‑end optical” technologies, it delivers vital technical support for beam modulation to boost processing performance of ship laser welding systems.

01 Industry Challenge: How to Improve Reliability of Ship Laser Welding Quality

China has topped the global ranking in completed ship output and new order bookings for successive years. Even so, the sector’s practical bottleneck lies not in insufficient overall machine power, but inadequate beam‑modulation capacity of welding heads, which directly undermines welding quality reliability.

One prominent cost‑driven headache in shipbuilding is that thick plates require groove preparation and turn‑over welding. Single‑pass welding for ship plates above 20 mm tends to trigger weld collapse, while heat‑affected zones and residual stress are hard to manage. Laser welding of marine aluminum alloys has long been plagued by high porosity and low joint strength.

More fundamentally, conventional welding heads can only adjust the power ratio between central and annular beams. Parameters including beam spacing, focal position and spot dimension remain fixed. Faced with varying materials, plate thicknesses and weld requirements, technicians have no choice but to tweak process parameters or even replace hardware. Spatter and porosity cannot be restrained effectively.

02 Solution: 3‑D Independent Modulation Capability of XH‑ABMPR Welding Head

The core breakthrough of Xinghong Optoelectronics XH‑ABMPR lies in advancing beam shaping from two‑dimensional adjustment to three‑dimensional dynamic modulation, enabling independent tuning across four dimensions: ‑ Arbitrary ring‑core power combination: Supports flexible matching of 1080 nm ring beam and core beam of identical wavelength, compatible with multiple fiber specifications for scenario‑oriented configuration. ‑ Independently adjustable ring‑core spacing: Modifies the gap between annular spot and central spot to separately control surface preheating and bottom penetration, realizing 3‑D spatial energy compensation and active temperature‑gradient regulation. ‑ Independent Z‑axis focal tuning: Focal position adjustable within ±50 mm along Z‑axis, accommodating process requirements for diverse plate thicknesses and groove profiles. ‑ Active oscillation of central spot: The annular spot stays static while the central spot oscillates, guiding orderly molten‑pool flow and enabling bubbles to escape from the keyhole, thus yielding dense, smooth weld seams.

These four functions transform the welding head from a static optical component into a fully adjustable beam‑shaping platform.

For thick‑plate welding: Surface preheating and bottom penetration can be controlled separately; active temperature‑gradient regulation suppresses weld collapse.

For aluminum‑alloy welding: The annular spot stabilizes the molten pool whereas the oscillating central spot drives bubble escape, substantially mitigating porosity defects.

03 System‑Level Value: Front‑end Optics Empower Upgrade of Ship Laser Welding Performance

The merits of the XH‑ABMPR laser welding head extend beyond process optimization. Within ship‑oriented laser‑arc hybrid welding systems, the synergy between laser deep‑penetration effect and arc‑stabilized molten pool holds the key to single‑sided welding with double‑sided formation for thick plates. Paired with 12‑60 kW high‑power laser sources, it enables turn‑over‑free welding for 6‑30 mm ship plates under matched process conditions. As the optical front‑end, the Xinghong Optoelectronics welding head grants dynamic tunability to the laser heat source in hybrid welding, realizing independent control over penetration and weld width for thick plates and markedly enhancing back‑side forming reliability.

The robotic laser‑arc hybrid welding system integrates a seventh‑axis ground rail slide, suitable for fabrication of hull structural parts and piping assemblies. Gantry‑style equipment targets flat‑panel production lines to satisfy high‑volume butt‑welding of ship plates.

Significant cost improvements are also achieved. Traditional ring‑core spot modulation relies on costly dedicated ring‑core lasers with locked parameters once the light source is selected. By integrating such capability on the welding‑head end, XH‑ABMPR works with standard fiber lasers. Shipyards are spared from overhauling their light‑source infrastructure and obtain differentiated beam‑modulation performance with lower investment, unlocking a low‑cost, high‑performance upgrading path.

04 On‑site Communications at the Exhibition

During the 2026 Wuhan Ship Exhibition, technical specialists from Xinghong Optoelectronics held in‑depth exchanges with professional visitors from shipyards and research institutes on technical subjects such as beam‑modulation strategies for thick‑plate laser welding and porosity suppression in aluminum‑alloy welding.

Benefiting from flexible 3‑D dynamic ring‑core tuning, the XH‑ABMPR series sustains stable welding processes and cuts spatter and porosity. It serves as a dependable optical front‑end for equipment solutions developing high‑end ship laser‑welding capacity.

At this critical phase when laser processes are being widely adopted in ship manufacturing, responding to demands for high‑quality development of the marine industry, Xinghong Optoelectronics delivers robust beam‑shaping technical guarantees for China’s shipbuilding sector with optical front‑end solutions represented by XH‑ABMPR. The company collaborates with industry partners to advance deployment and iteration of ship laser‑welding technologies.