By Geoff Giordano In two days, the University of California, Berkeley, will throw a 99th birthday celebration for Charles Hard Townes, inventor of the laser and professor emeritus of physics at the school. As we celebrate this milestone and Townes’ remarkable career, it brings to mind one attendee from our […]
Laser Editorials
Support Your LSO & Choose the Right Eyewear
By Tom MacMullin Wear your eyewear when working with your laser! How many times have you heard that? Your Laser Safety Officer (LSO) can, and should be, your best friend and advocate. Your LSO can base selection of LEP on OD and wavelength, with a further understanding of the unique environments and individuals – to […]
Plastics Additives Allow Inkless Marking
By Matthew Gailey Thanks to lasers, manufacturers can write characters and images on any plastic parts you can think of, no matter what shape or surface structure they have. Expiration dates on bottle closures, serial numbers on technical parts, or marking items with an ID number or even indestructible barcodes – it’s all possible with […]
High-Efficiency Laser Processing of CFRP
By Rudolf Weber and Volkher Onuseit The benefit of CFRP for lightweight construction in automotive and airplane industries is widely accepted. Impressive pictures of high-performance cars and airplanes with numerous high-tech looking carbon fiber parts are familiar to everybody. However, industrial large-volume application of CFRP requires efficient and high-quality processing. And of course, the laser […]
From dental and bone implants to restoration of engine parts, additive manufacturing changing lives and industries
Two weeks ago today, the sixth-annual Laser Additive Manufacturing Workshop opened in Houston with a riveting keynote by GE Aviation’s Todd Rockstroh. Setting an attendance record, LAM 2014 closed the following day with a lively Q&A session on the qualities and varieties of AM alloys for powder-bed and powder-fed applications. It’s always illuminating to go […]