applications Materials processing
High Performance Lasers by Cobolt.
the airframe of the airbus a380 is composed of approximately 20 per cent composite materials. laser-based techniques are being developed to process composite materials more effectively.
➤a new kind of collaboration
• Fluorescence imaging and analysis
• Raman spectroscopy • Interferometry • Semi-conductor metrology • Optical tweezers
04-01 Series Compact SLM DPSSLs
457, 473, 491, 515, 532, 561, 594 nm CW power up to 300 mW, rms<0.25%
True fiber-pigtail option Dual Combiner option 05-01 Series
High power single frequency DPSSLs 355, 491, 532, 561, 660, 1064 nm CW power up to 2000 mW Ultra-low noise, rms <0.1% Immune to optical feed-back
• HTCure™ manufacturing for ultra-robust lasers and ensured reliability!
www.cobolt.se Cobolt Headoffice, Sweden
Phone +46 8 545 912 30, E-mail
info@cobolt.se www.electrooptics.com
lasers, including zero warm-up time (it can be tens of minutes for some CO2
lasers in this market,’ says Wiechmann. ‘In principle the fibre laser has many advantages over CO2
lasers), low
running costs, and a higher wall-plug efficiency (30 per cent compared to 7 to 8 per cent or less for CO2
). Fibre lasers are therefore a more
When designing cutting or welding systems for industrial and job shop users, GSI’s Naeem says that process optimisation is as important as the laser used. ‘To a certain extent, laser technology is the easy bit. When one of our customers says “I want to weld 50µm foil to 50µm foil” the laser itself is a cheap component, but the customer then needs to invest in equipment that can clamp 50µm foil without damaging it. If they want to weld a 10-15µm spot on the workpiece, the laser can achieve that easily, but they will need to invest money in vision and control systems capable of working to the same accuracy,’ he says, adding that this can present more of a challenge. California-based JDSU has been working with Amada Corporation, a Japanese developer of industrial systems, in order to develop a turnkey kW-class cutting system based around a JDSU’s fibre lasers. Here, too, the process parameters must be as innovative as the laser used, and both are being developed alongside each other. According to Werner Wiechmann, product line management director for commercial lasers at JDSU, the expertise of the two teams is complementary. Amada, he says, has a history in the machine tool industry, and as such the company is able to contribute much to the machine interface and the mechanical design of the system, whereas JDSU’s history of producing high-reliability laser diodes and fibre lasers will allow it to produce a reliable and well suited laser. The Amada cutting system will be aimed at job shop users. ‘In general we’re competing against CO2
ecologically sound solution,’ he says, noting again that being green is an important selling point in current markets. Wiechmann believes, however, that JDSU’s main advantage over other manufacturers in the job shop market is its partnership with Amada: ‘Amada is taking control of the interface and the whole package, but the system integrator is also working closely with us – the fibre laser designer – to match the cutting machine to the laser’s performance. The customer will be able to look at the whole package and see how well it plays together.’ ‘You could have the best beam quality and the best performance possible in a fibre laser but, if the linear speed of the machine doesn’t match that performance, then you haven’t gained much,’ says Wiechmann. ‘We think it’s very important to have the integrator involved in the overall design, from
it’s very important to
have the integrator involved in the overall design
a performance perspective, but we’re also very glad to have Amada in the partnership for the sales and support angle. High quality laser design is our skill, and while Amada hasn’t got that skill they do have the channel to market.’ JDSU believes its work with Amada represents
the introduction of a relatively new partnership model. ‘We’re not really aware of anyone else with the same kind of partnership; there are firms in the market that have the ability to make both the laser and the cutting system, but end users are trying to break that tightly controlled market,’ says Wiechmann. Collaborations like this might be just what are needed to open the market up to greater competition. l
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