Laser beam welding, a well-established technology in manufacturing, is confronted with growing challenges as requirements on quality and efficiency evolve. The criticality of

common weld defects, including porosity, lack of fusion, irregular penetration depth, cracks, undercut or spatter, is amplified by the ever-increasing complexity of weld parameters.

Latest advancements in static and dynamic beam shaping, such as homogenization, beam splitting, beam oscillation, beam modulation and adaptive beam shaping have provided

significant possibilities to address some of these challenges by controlling local heat input and the resulting process dynamics. High fidelity numerical simulations enable modeling a wide range of the underlying multiphysical phenomena, such as beam propagation, multiple reflections, phase changes, grain growth and the dynamics of vapor and melt flows,

providing comprehensive in-depth process understanding. This understanding, in turn, facilitates the optimization process compared to traditional experimental approaches. Since

beam shaping is accompanied with a profound expansion of the input parameter field, revealing intricate cause-effect relationships by numerical studies significantly helps to

accelerate the optimization process. This work offers illustrative insights showcasing the impact of laser beam shaping on welding applications via numerical process simulations.