Laser Welding of Liquid-Cold Plates Becomes a Key Process for AI Computing Cooling

As AI large models continue to iterate, computing power demand is growing exponentially, driving rapid expansion across data centers, AI servers, liquid-cooled energy storage and related industries. With higher heat dissipation efficiency, lower energy consumption and better space utilization, liquid cooling is becoming the mainstream solution for upgrading AI computing infrastructure. Behind this "cooling revolution" in AI computing, liquid cold plate manufacturing capability, especially laser welding technology for liquid cold plates, is becoming the key factor determining product performance, reliability and mass-production capacity.

Liquid Cold Plate: The "Heart Component" of a Liquid Cooling System

The liquid cold plate is the core heat-exchange component of a liquid cooling system. Through precision internal flow channels, it rapidly carries away the large amount of heat generated by core devices such as chips, GPUs and CPUs. As AI servers continue to move toward higher power density, liquid cold plates are being upgraded toward high sealing performance, thinner walls, complex flow channels and integrated structures, placing greater demands on manufacturing processes. Welding quality directly affects the safety, reliability and energy efficiency of the entire liquid cooling system.

Why Is Welding Liquid Cold Plates So Difficult?

Liquid cold plates currently rely mainly on high-thermal-conductivity materials such as red copper and aluminum alloy, and some products also involve dissimilar-material welding such as copper-to-stainless steel and copper-to-aluminum. Because red copper and aluminum alloy have material characteristics such as high reflectivity and high thermal conductivity, conventional welding processes are prone to back-reflection damage to the equipment, unstable weld pools, deformation of thin-walled structures and formation of brittle compounds, as well as defects such as severe spatter, numerous pores and large cracks. These issues have become a serious bottleneck hindering large-scale mass production of liquid cold plates.

Guangdong Yue Ming Laser Group —Red-Blue Light Composite Cold Plate Welding Workstation

Purpose-built for high-performance liquid cooling plates, solving the challenges of welding highly reflective copper and aluminum materials

Designed for precision processing of high-reflectivity materials such as red copper, aluminum alloy, and copper-stainless steel in AI computing liquid cooling, Guangdong Laser Intelligent Manufacturing Group has introduced a red-blue composite laser liquid cooling plate welding workstation. Combining the high absorption of blue light with the high energy density of red light, it enables composite laser welding in which the two beams complement each other, forming a preheating plus deep-penetration welding mode that significantly improves weld quality and processing efficiency. Equipped with a high-precision servo motion control system and dedicated precision fixtures, the workstation delivers accurate positioning and automatic welding of liquid cooling plates, ensuring consistent, visually clean welds and long-term leak-free performance.

Core Strengths

Spatter suppression - Blue laser preheating softens the weld pool, effectively reducing welding spatter and producing smooth, attractive weld seams;

Reduced porosity — a longer weld pool solidification time allows bubbles to escape fully, improving weld seam density;

Higher efficiency — synchronously increases the workpiece's absorption of red light during high-speed welding, boosting productivity;

High flexibility – Modular design enables quick tooling and fixture changes, accommodating processing of products in multiple specifications.

High precision – A high-precision gantry dual-drive structure ensures stable operation and accurate positioning, delivering consistent and reliable weld quality.

Superior for dissimilar-material welding – Effectively overcomes welding challenges caused by differences in material physical properties and improves weld seam strength.

Target applications: Efficient, high-precision welding of core components such as liquid cold plates, water manifolds, bellows, high-precision fixture tables and rotary tables for cold plate processors and AI server ODM manufacturers.

Customized process development and tailored welding parameters for different materials and structural characteristics

Yueming Laser Group has targeted the critical need for high-precision, high-sealing processing in the AI computing liquid-cooling sector, taking the lead in overcoming multiple key process technology barriers. It has built a full-stack advanced manufacturing technology ecosystem spanning laser cutting, laser welding, laser cleaning, laser marking, laser grooving, and automated, intelligent and digital production line upgrades, injecting strong "hardcore" driving force into the high-quality development of China's AI liquid-cooling industry.