New and innovative welding technology brought precision, high quality "soft" metal bellows to practical reality. Thin gage annular disks are laser welded automatically with the aid of computer-controlled precision guidance by a machine vision seam tracking system. The resistance to the axial motion of the bellows (spring rate) is reduced to 47% to 19% compared with conventional bellows of the same size. These "soft" bellows are especially suitable for hermetic sealing of vacuum valves and manipulators for ultra-high vacuum and semi-conductor applications. Higher positioning accuracy and low motor power are some of the benefits of these bellows. The "soft" bellows are 100% checked for weld integrity by automatic welding/inspection machines, followed by mass spectrometer leak check. Randomly selected samples go through life cycle testing. The bellows last more than 5 million cycles without failure. Finite element analysis (FEA) of the bellows was used extensively in the design of bellows. Comprehensive life cycle testing and leak testing verified the analytical prediction.