Shorter Wavelengths, Pulses Power Laser
Manufacturing
BY HANK HOGAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Recent laser advances are bringing benefits to manu- facturing applications involving drilling, cutting and welding. More powerful diode lasers could, in
the future, do more of these jobs directly, instead of being
used to pump another material. The use of steering mirrors promises to speed up welding and other applications.
Such innovations look to enable systems to become more
powerful, simpler, more robust and less costly.
Products from Trumpf are involved in drilling, cutting, welding and other manufacturing applications, said
Tracey Ryba, product manager for OEM lasers at the
company’s operations in Plymouth, Mich. Trumpf makes
laser systems based on different technologies, ranging
from 16-k W continuous-wave to 10-W pulsed lasers.
Years ago, metals processing would have been done
using a 10-µm-wavelength CO2 laser. The advent of robust, high-power and low-operating-cost diode-pumped
solid-state disk and fiber lasers shifted manufacturing to
a micron wavelength, which such lasers could easily produce. The shorter wavelength does lead to more welding
splatter, but that is fixed through processing and fixturing, according to Ryba.
Wavelengths are now being pushed a bit lower, down
to the mid-900-nm range, he said. “These wavelengths
react a little bit better with aluminum, copper and brass.”
The ability to work with aluminum is particularly
important in automobile manufacturing, where the material is being used more frequently to help automakers
Short-Pulse Lasers Enable
Transparent Materials Processing
Machining glass, sapphire and diamond has been difficult using traditional mechanical methods due to their
brittleness and hardness. Solid-state lasers with pulse
widths in the subnanosecond domain are changing all
that. page 8 ►
Vision Systems Simplify
Automated Inspection
Continuous improvement in processor technology is
advancing throughput for vision systems, as image processing is no longer the bottleneck in production – but
with increased speeds, synchronization becomes a key
challenge. page 14 ►
Choosing the Right Class
of Lens for Machine Vision
Machine vision systems don’t function well with poor
or inconsistent visual information, so designers need
to make sure systems provide high-quality, consistent
images for specific applications. And it starts with the
optics. page 11 ►
Lasers Guiding Us
into More Intelligent Future
Tomorrow’s smartphone might be on your wrist, on the
bridge of your nose, in your ear or even on your retina.
To make this happen, the chip will have to become even
more powerful – and its circuits must be made even
smaller. page 16 ►
A global resource on lasers, sensors,
machine vision and automation systems
for materials processing, process control
and production.
page 24 ►
Inside This Issue:
Business News ........................................... 4
Technology News ........................................ 7
Transparent Materials Processing ............... 8
Choosing the Right Lens for Vision ............ 11
Vision Simplifies Automated Inspection ..... 14
Lasers for a More Intelligent Future ........... 16
Affordable Semi-Custom Cameras .............. 20
Hyperspectral Imaging for Industry ............ 22
New Products ........................................... 26
Upcoming Events ...................................... 30
Advertiser Index ....................................... 31
A diode laser welds aluminum. Using the appropriate wavelength can reduce reflection and improve the process.
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