In the last 50 years laser material processing has successfully been established, especially in the area of thin materials. With the availability of more powerful laser sources it is now possible to process larger dimensions. The combination of a laser process with one or two GMA brilliant laser radiation for conventional welding practices because of the increased gap bridgeability. Thus, material thicknesses up to 23 mm of steel grade X70 for pipeline applications are joined in flat position within a single process step over the whole thickness with a speed of about 1.5 m/min. For this purpose, a high-power disc laser source is used with a maximum output power of 16 kW. For plates of the aluminum alloy EN AW-6082-T6 with a thickness of 12 mm speeds of up to 6 m/min were used. By the use of an additional inductive preheating for welding of fine-grain structural steels with the grades S700MC, X70 and S690QL in a thickness range from 10 to 15 mm, it is possible to increase the welding speed and to obtain homogeneous mechanical properties near the welding seam. Other examined applications are the welding of large steel-aluminum foam sandwiches for shipbuilding and the high-rate deposition-welding process with a none-transferred arc which burns between two wire electrodes. For the latter, the laser is used to control the welding penetration in order to combine the high deposition rates of the arc process of up to 20 kg/h with a low heat input into the workpiece. In all the mentioned areas, with more applications being investigated, the laser offers the possibility to produce high quality joints at high speeds.