Attendees were invited to tweet on twitter using the hashtag #ICALEO, and while a number of people participated, Laurent Berthe tweeted up a storm! For his participation he received an iPad mini. Thanks Laurent, and everyone else who participated for being social with us!
By Ken Barat
By Geoff Giordano
With a new general chairman and the first female recipient of the Arthur L. Schawlow award, the 32nd International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO®) Oct. 6-10 in Miami, FL promises to yet again raise the bar on the laser industry’s premier research conference.
Stefan Kaierle, who for the past two years has served as chair of the Laser Materials Processing Conference, takes the helm of the Laser Institute of America’s signature event this year.
“My main concern was, as always, to put together a strong program of high interest for many participants,” said Kaierle, head of the materials and processes department for Laser Zentrum Hannover. “We needed to have presentations and papers on the latest results and emerging applications. A good mixture from macro via micro to nano is important for ICALEO as we want to cover the whole range of laser manufacturing applications.” Continue reading
By Geoff Giordano
Expanded exhibit space, new exhibitors and networking opportunities, and more working laser systems took the third annual Lasers for Manufacturing Event® (LME®) to a new level of impact for the laser community.
The Laser Institute of America’s unique event, held Sept. 11-12 at the Schaumburg Convention Center, showed more signs that it is maturing as a must-attend event. Bringing together laser makers, systems integrators and providers of all manner of related equipment and services, LME 2013 gave attendees the know-how they need to get laser-based manufacturing projects up and running. Continue reading
By Eckhard Beyer and Achim Mahrle
The high power laser market has been remarkably influenced by the introduction of high-brightness lasers, i.e., laser sources offering a high optical output power in combination with a high beam quality or a low beam parameter product, respectively. These features are primarily exhibited by fiber and disk laser systems, but diode lasers are also increasingly available with improved beam quality and higher output levels. The development of new processes that make use of the advantages of high-brightness lasers was intensively pursued in recent years and some examples of innovative solutions were given in this paper.
On the other hand, the advent of high-brightness lasers also gave rise to some technical challenges, which still need a reliable solution. One point concerns the optical feedback due to back reflections during processing highly reflective materials. Another serious and often discussed topic, is the occurrence of unacceptable focus shifts when working with high-intensity laser beams. Continue reading
