Geoff Shannon, PhD
Manager, Advanced Technology Amada Miyachi America Member Since 2009
SME SPEAKS GUEST EDITORIAL Lasers Grow Manufacturing T
oday, laser technology in manufacturing touches all of our lives on a daily basis; lasers cut air bag mate- rial and weld air bag detonators for our in-car safety; lasers weld the batteries in many of our mobile devices; lasers drill aero-engine components for planes; lasers cut the glass for our smart phones and tablets screens; lasers weld the drivetrains in our cars and trucks; lasers cut medical stents that increase and enhance our lives, just to name a few. The proliferation and key revenue stream driver of laser technology in the manufacturing sector started with the laser cutting of sheet metal. The adoption of this technol- ogy serves as the blueprint for why laser technology has, over the last 20 years, grown steadily with an almost 10% CAGR. The cuts produced by the laser were more ac- curate, more precise, which led to many advantages in downstream processes. An interesting example of this was in the shipbuilding industry where previously plasma- cut parts needed rework to fi t correctly, with the shipyard reverberating to the sound of a thousand hammers. After the laser cutter was installed, I remember asking the over- seeing manager what he thought of his new laser cutting machine, and he replied “Silence!” The laser could also cut a variety of materials, both metals and nonmetals, provid- ing fl exibility—a key requirement for fabrication shops. This capability for precision, fl exibility and unique processing are really the cornerstone of why laser technology is selected for a manufacturing process. Fast forward 20 years, and looking at present day where laser technology is currently at, there is nearly a laser for every process a manufacturing or design engineer can imagine: cut- ting, welding, marking, machining, cladding, additive building, roughening, stripping—the list goes on. Looking more closely at the manufacturing sectors that are currently trending:
High-Volume Laser Welding
Maximizing weld time and minimizing nonweld time is of course the goal. As laser welding is a noncontact process, and the laser can be directed very quickly by moving mirror systems known as scan heads, making welding almost instantaneous. A great example of this is welding car seat assemblies—a robot carrying a scan head moves above the assembly without stopping, making all the welds on the fly. A job that previously took minutes is now seconds. Another example is battery welding for electric vehicles—ultimately the cost of the batteries will determine the success of this sector. The need to drive battery pack manufacturing costs down means high-speed welding. Laser technology is the only viable process to enable this.
Laser Part Marking The fastest-growing laser market in recent years contin- ues to expand as the need for tracking and traceability for parts increases. Laser marking provides a permanent direct mark for a wide variety of materials, with any feature—text, graphics, barcodes. The markers can be linked to databases for mark serialization or operate in standalone capacity. The laser marker offers a truly impressive package for a com- modity price that refl ects the tens of thousands that are sold every year.
Laser Additive Manufacturing Additive manufacturing is fi nally hitting the big time, hav- ing been around for almost 30 years, with price, capability and demand aligning. Laser additive manufacturing can be split into part repair and part creation. Part creation enables fabrication of parts not possible by any other process: custom parts for medical implants, lighter, single-
June 2015 |
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