A case study on laser welding processing at a one-model car production line at a recognized automotive plant is presented. The process under study is used to weld together the roof and sides of a car by means of two lasers. This process has quality issues related to the frequent appearance of pores in both cords. As this problem had been occurring for the last two years, it was evident that it was necessary to tackle it from a different angle, so experimentation was identified as the tool needed. A design of experiments approach was chosen as an efficient technique to maximise the information gained from the experimentation. An average reduction in the number of pores of 97 per cent is obtained.
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