DEVELOPMENT TRENDS


“Well-trained AI algorithms can analyse sensor signals and detect system deviations and defects faster and more reliably than classic monitoring systems”


Civan Laser’s Dynamic Beam Laser can rapidly switch between beam shapes such as spirals, circles, or doughnuts to optimise welding applications


process copper – a material notoriously difficult to process using standard infrared fibre lasers due to its high reflectivity. For example, in 2022 diode laser


manufacturer Laserline introduced a 3kW version of its LDMblue laser with a beam quality of 30mm.mrad. This broadens the range of applications blue laser technology can address, especially when combined with scanner or fixed optics solutions to achieve optimal beam delivery. In welding and cladding processes, much faster joins and higher deposition rates can now be achieved. In the case of keyhole welding of electrical conductors such as copper hairpins, larger cross-sections can be handled with moderate heat input. Such visible light sources are also


now capable of 3D printing copper. At Formnext 2022, for example Prima Additive demonstrated the exceptional quality and repeatability of its Print Green 150 system, which thanks to a 200W green laser can produce pure copper parts up to 150 x 160mm in size with densities exceeding 99.9%. Laser giant Trumpf also released a new version of its largest 3D printer, the TruPrint 5000, equipped with a TruDisk 1020 green laser in order to facilitate the processing of large copper components up to 300mm in diameter and 400mm in height. The system can deliver 800W of laser power to the workpiece to achieve build rates of up to 100cm3


/h, with layer


thicknesses down to 30μm. At the show, the firm displayed a radio frequency quadrupole manufactured from electrolytic tough pitch (ETP) copper, as well as other copper parts including gas coolers, fluid mixers, semiconductor coolers, shaft inductors and heat exchangers. Blue lasers are also beginning to target 3D printing applications. In Q1 2023, for example, another blue laser manufacturer,


Nuburu, delivered what it says is the world’s first blue laser powered area 3D printer light engine to a technical partner under a contract with the U.S. Air Force. Once integrated into a 3D printer, high-density materials will be printable at high speeds with dramatically reduced CO2 emissions. For example, Nuburu has demonstrated up to a 2.75 times reduction in CO2 emissions when printing stainless steel parts compared to an infrared laser.


Dynamic beam shaping delivers welding gains With the majority of laser applications currently being performed with a single round beam with either a Gaussian or top hat profile, a parameter field still ripe for exploring is beam shaping. While new sets of beam shaping optics continue to emerge each year, a particularly interesting capability that has emerged lately is the ability to change the profile and parameters


of laser beams during processing without requiring a change in optics. This has been seen both through the emergence of “ring-in-ring” technology in lasers with adjustable beam quality over the past four to five years (from firms including Coherent, NLight, Trumpf and IPG), which has led to efficiency gains in welding, cutting and additive manufacturing, as well as the more recent arrival of dynamic beam shaping via coherent-beam-combining technology from Civan Lasers. While plenty of benefits have been seen


from “ring-in-ring” technology, its beam shaping functionality can actually be quite limited. These systems enable users to change the sub-power in the ring and in the core, however they do not enable the user to choose whichever beam shapes they want, and the shapes they do offer can be quite static. Civan’s Dynamic Beam Lasers on the other hand combine and overlap numerous beams of differing phase to switch between a wide range of beam shapes at up to megahertz frequencies and high power. This enables full control of the


g


The LAMpAS project has wielded high-power ultrafast lasers via innovative scanning solutions to develop a machine for the high-throughput, low-cost production of laser- textured functionalised surfaces


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LAMpAS project


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