FIBER LASERS
Deep penetration fi ber laser welds in two types of material. On the left is stainless steel subjected to 50 kW at 60 ipm (1524 mm/min) with a penetration of 1.3" (33 mm). On the right is copper that also has been subjected to 50 kW at 60 ipm with a penetration of 1.125" (28.6 mm).
Fiber Lasers Continue to Gain Market Share in Material Processing Applications
Fiber lasers offer users the lowest price per watt with the highest beam quality
Bill Shiner
Vice President Industrial Lasers IPG Photonics Oxford, MA
T
he fi rst kilowatt-class fi ber laser for material process- ing was introduced by IPG Photonics in early 2002. Since that time, the adoption of fi ber lasers for produc- tion applications has grown at a rapid rate. Today, fi ber
lasers are becoming the choice for most major production laser applications as well as converting traditional welding and cutting processes to fi ber laser technologies. This is best evidenced by the double-digit year-over-year growth that IPG has experienced
over the past several years. During this period, traditional CO2 and solid-state laser companies, offering material processing lasers, have experienced declining sales growth or low single- digit growth at best. Several other companies have started to introduce fi ber lasers in the last several years; however, IPG Photonics has been able to maintain a fi ber laser market share in excess of 70%.
February 2016 |
AdvancedManufacturing.org 79
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