ANALYSIS: INVESTMENT


tables (to extend the cutting field by step-and-repeat motion) and rotary indexers (for cutting of cylindrical parts). It was important to us that we chose a supplier with a strong UK-based service department. The investment also included purchase of an optical measuring system. Our customers are frequently at start-up or early growth phases – when outsourcing to specialist manufacturers is necessary and the benefits of a flexible service that can be economical at even low volume are clear. A typical customer will submit CAD drawings of the outline of the intricate part to be cut or the layout of perforations to be drilled, and this can be downloaded to the laser controller software directly. To close the loop for QA purposes, it is critical that ES Precision can provide a certificate of dimensional conformity for the components shipped. To this end, we selected Keyence’s IM 8000 Image Dimension Measuring System. It is capable of providing a dimensioned image of the cut profile and, for serial production, a pass/fail QA test for each item according to whichever critical dimensions and tolerances we choose to set.


Launching a service to support the hydrogen economy One particularly exciting sector currently, and looking forward, is a key part of the clean energy drive to reduce emissions and fight climate change. In August the UK Government announced its £240m Net Zero Hydrogen


“We have seen increasing opportunities to provide a service to cut fine structures in thicker metals ”


Fund, targeting 5MW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. This is the equivalent of the natural gas used by three million homes. Hydrogen is therefore moving up the political agenda, and should continue to do so when the UK hosts the international climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow in November. Fuel cells facilitate the


‘hydrogen economy’ and may be a vital component of a sustainable future, providing electrical power for electronics, transport and energy storage. Jules Verne, in a remarkably prescient vision, wrote that ‘Water will be the coal of the future’ in 1874 ( see below). The modern version of the crude burning of the hydrogen he envisioned is the ‘cold combustion’ of hydrogen and oxygen within a fuel cell to create electricity and the waste product – water. The hydrogen required can


be created by electrolysis of water using surplus green electricity from windy or sunny days, and represents an effective store of electricity that current battery technology cannot compete with, in terms of efficiency and sustainability


100W Fibre Laser Source


Galvo Scanners with Mirrors


F-Theta Focus Lens


Erosion Cutting Field


Laser erosion process for thin metals VERNE’S VISION OF THE FUTURE


In his 1874 book L’Ile Mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island) Jules Verne stated: ‘water will one day be employed as a fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen that constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable. Someday the coal rooms of steamers and the tenders of locomotives will, instead of coal, be stored with these two condensed gases, which will burn in the furnaces with enormous caloric power… I believe, that when the deposits of coal are exhausted, we shall heat and warm ourselves with water… water will be the coal of the future.’


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(all battery technologies are environmentally expensive). There are several viable designs of fuel cells commercially available and in development. For low-medium output and low temperature operation, which suits personal electronics and transport, it is the PEM fuel cell which seems most promising. PEM stands for either ‘proton exchange membrane’ or ‘polymer electrolyte membrane’ and a single cell comprises the membrane (around 20μm- thick polymer, which transmits protons but not electrons), platinum catalysts on each side (to facilitate the H2 molecule splitting into protons and electrons on one side and recombination with oxygen into water on the other) and gas diffusion layers on each side (to transport appropriate gases in and out). Each of these thin ‘membrane electrode assemblies’ generates of the order of 1V; multiple units are assembled into stacks to generate more useful voltages. Each assembly is separated by a bipolar plate and a gasket. This is where our new


investments come into use. It is these metal plates and rubber gaskets that can be erosion cut by fibre and CO2 lasers respectively, the new 100W


laser being able to cut metal plates thicker than 0.2mm and at a rate which makes medium volumes still economical. Short production runs, prototyping and ramp-up also become viable since the laser system is digitally controlled so there is no need to manufacture conventional cutting tools. The service ES Precision


will provide is attractive for its quality and flexibility, both at development and production stages. QA reports from the optical measuring system provide buyers with the certainty that dimensional tolerances demanded have been met. Lasers can also be used to weld the whole assembly so that leaks cannot occur and also to mark unique tracking data on the assembly. We’re excited to launch this


service with the help of OxLEP and the Getting Building Fund. The Keyence system has arrived and is proving invaluable already. Arrival of the laser in November will trigger a phase of R&D to optimise the process of erosion cutting for a range of materials, and we look forward to working with companies at the forefront of medical device, electronics, instrumentation and, especially, green electricity – from batteries and motors to photovoltaics and fuel cells. l


AUTUMN 2021 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE 29


FIRST PASS


FINAL PASS


ES Precision


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