A numerical simulation of the heat transfer during laser transmission welding is presented. A finite difference approach was used to solve the one-dimensional unsteady-state heat conduction problem and to investigate the effect of welding conditions on the time-dependent temperature profiles for PA 6. For the needs of the simulation, the process was divided into heating and heat redistribution periods. The absorption coefficient of the laser-transparent part was measured experimentally and that of the laser-absorbing part was fitted using experimental data. The predicted temperature profiles were combined with experimental meltdown data to estimate the heat-affected zone thickness in the welded specimens. Good agreement was found between the estimated and measured heat-affected zone thickness values.