ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Professor Lin Li, Director of the Laser Processing Research Centre at The University of Manchester, has been announced as the recipient of The Laser Institute’s (LIA) prestigious Arthur L. Schawlow Award for 2019.
Recognition for his career-long contributions to basic and applied research in laser science and engineering, the award will be presented at LIA’s 38th International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO) in Orlando, Florida on October 9th.
The annual commendation acknowledges Professor Li’s leadership as President of The Laser Institute in 2016, as well as President of The International Academy of Photonics and Laser Engineering from 2013–2015 and President of The Association of Industrial Laser Users (AILU) from 2017–2019. At the same time, LIA recognizes his work in pioneering the fields of diode laser materials processing, industrial laser cleaning, multiple material additive manufacturing, and more.
The Arthur L. Schawlow Award joins Professor Li’s list of honored titles including the 2014 Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society for his research on laser nano-fabrication and nano-imaging, as well as the Researcher of the Year medal from The University of Manchester in the same year. His work on innovative manufacturing that led to significant economic impact was also applauded by The Royal Academy of Engineering as he was bestowed the Sir Frank Whittle Medal in 2013.
LIA’s William M. Steen Award will mark its first year in ICALEO by having its namesake gracing the event as well as personally conferring the awards. Professor Steen will join the audience in saluting the winners that have demonstrated significant innovation in the use of lasers for advanced materials processing.
This year’s winning nominations are:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the Academic & Public Sector Industry
Lincoln Electric for the Aerospace Industry
K-Labs for the Automotive Industry
Electro-Optics Technology for the Defense Industry
Boston Scientific for the Medical Devices Industry
Samsung for the Microelectronics Industry
Hitachi for the Research & Development Industry
Boss Laser for the Specialized Manufacturing & Services Industry
The Theodore H. Maiman Award will be annually conferred by LIA to the Steen Award recipient organization that demonstrates the highest achievement in advancing laser materials processing technology. Maiman is known for his work in developing the first operational laser and numerous applications thereafter.
The winner of this award will be announced during ICALEO’s Awards Gala on October 9th.
ICALEO will feature over 222 technical and business presentations on cutting-edge laser applications research, development, and implementation across the four-day conference. For more information regarding registration, agendas, and speakers, visit LIA’s official website.
For four days this October 7-10th, lasers and electro-optics industry experts and leaders from all over the world will congregate in Orlando, Florida for the 38th annual ICALEO conference, hosted by The Laser Institute (LIA).
SOURCE The Laser Institute
In its 38th iteration, The Laser Institute’s (LIA) flagship International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO) will now feature five technical tracks during its technical conference, with the addition of Battery Systems & Energy Conversion.
ORLANDO, Fla.— For four days this October 7-10th, lasers and electro-optics industry experts and leaders from all over the world will congregate in Orlando, Florida for the 38th annual ICALEO conference, hosted by The Laser Institute (LIA).
The conference will consist of a comprehensive four-day trade show for each industry foci ––Aerospace, Biomedical, Microelectronics, and Automotive respectively. Furthermore, the introduction of a new Business Conference component will highlight the Live User Solutions Forums, Roundtable Discussions, Market Driver Symposium, and Evening of Innovation.
Taking a more technical focus toward innovation and novel uses of lasers and photonics, each industry will be subdivided into five tracks for the technical conference and workshop portion. These tracks include Laser Additive Manufacturing, Laser Materials Macroprocessing and Microprocessing, Laser Nanomanufacturing, and Battery Systems and Energy Conversion.
Notable topics will include Gerrit Hohenhoff’s comparison between scanning laser optical tomography (SLOT) and Micro Computed Tomography (µCT) in 3D printing (“Comparison of SLOT and µCT Investigation of 3D Printed Polymer Parts for Quality Assurance”) and Yongfeng Lu’s two-photon polymerization technique in 3D nanofabrication (“Two-Photon Polymerization of Blended Resin Mixtures for 3D Nanofabrication of Functional Structures”).
In addition, Rüdiger Brockmann’s take on autonomous laser processes (“Smart Production – On the Way to Autonomous Laser Processing”) will join Shiva Gadag’s improvement on the compatibility of heart implants with MRI tests via laser doping (“Laser Doping of Platinum for MRI Compatibility of Pace Maker Implants”) in the Laser Materials Microprocessing track. Leonid Lev’sthoughts on the future of powertrain technology will be covered in his presentation (“Laser Applications in Automotive Battery Powertrain Production”) for the Battery Systems & Energy Conversion track.
Beyond extensive networking opportunities, attendees will also have the chance to attend over 222 technical paper presentations on never before published results of cutting-edge applications research, development, or implementation. With over 50 topics offered on each day of the technical conference, attendees will get up-to-date information on the latest industry technologies.
In celebration of its 50 years, LIA showed thanks to the support received from industry giants IPG Photonics, Coherent, Han’s Lasers and TRUMPF, at the world-famous Thomson Reuters building in Times Square.
The digital screens displayed a prominent message for the commemorative occasion,
“On its 50th Anniversary, LIA would like to thank Coherent, Han’s Laser, IPG Photonics and TRUMPF for its support.”
Complimenting this message was a bold statement below, previewing the future of LIA and its strategy to shape the future of the photonics industry:
“Defining the next 50 years of photonics – LIA.”
Celebrations Continue at ICALEO with Industry Partners
LIA will address the global photonics materials processing landscape at its 37th annual edition of ICALEO. Laser industry professionals from academic and industrial backgrounds will gather at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, FL, from October 14-18.
This year will see past presidents, board members and corporate members all in attendance celebrating LIA’s 50th year, with many bringing memorabilia to celebrate the occasion.
“LIA’s 50th birthday is a time for us to reflect on our great achievements and contributions in the growth of this industry over the years. It also marks a time for us to be innovative and pave the way to success together, over the next 50 years,” commented Dr. Nathaniel Quick, Executive Director of LIA.
ICALEO annually draws international crowds of attendees and companies, showcasing and discussing the latest in photonics microprocessing, nanomanufacturing and materials processing. Prominent companies in attendance this year will include Beijing JCZ, Coherent, Edgewave, Han’s Laser, IPG Photonics, SPI Lasers and TRUMPF.
In last year’s 2016 report, I opened with comments about the troubling times, political, cultural and economic, we lived in and then expounded on the industrial laser industry seeming to defy bad news with its own good economic news. Well, I could have copied that report, changed a few numbers, and saved a lot of time and effort in compiling this year’s. I won’t, however, because there are some changes, both good and bad.
First the bad—politically, socially, and culturally things got worse. In the United States, the socio-economic gap widened and the country is more contentiously divided. Around the world, there continues to be terrorism, secular war and other strife. The fractious Brexit problem, still unresolved, leaves the economies of several countries in limbo. Furthermore, as the year ended, one stalwart, Germany, lost its economic luster, and as the New York Times proclaimed, this country “plunged into political crisis.”
Despite this, most countries’ economies improved in 2017 and the average GNP slightly increased. As a result, manufacturing, the backbone of these economies, improved.
In response, the industrial laser market experienced another growth year led by exuberant fiber and excimer laser revenues. Overall total market revenues tallied a whopping 26% increase, a level not seen since the early days of this almost-50-year-old industry sector.
I’m going to pause to explain how the market numbers are generated. Industrial Laser Solutions partner, Strategies Unlimited, compiles and prepares annual revenue data for us, primarily from public companies representing several of the largest industrial laser manufacturers, including IPG Photonics, Coherent, Inc., along with data from the largest company, privately held TRUMPF. Because of the timing of these reports, revenues for the final quarter of the calendar year are taken from the guidance offered in their reports. Consequently, adjustments made in prior year revenues may be made if fourth-quarter results published early in the next year are outside the limits of the guidance advisories. This happened last year in the case of industry leaders IPG Photonics and Coherent, Inc.
Source: Strategies Unlimited/ILS
Okay, let’s look at the numbers. After some adjustments in revenues, 2016 turned out to be a good year for industrial laser sales led by outstanding fiber laser growth and the beginning of deliveries of high-power excimer lasers for applications in manufacturing mobile phone displays. This trend continued in 2017 with two companies, IPG Photonics and Coherent, Inc., racking up outstanding first-half revenue growth. Processing of Micromaterials gained 24%, most of it from a 56% increase in revenues from the face plate processing application. High-power processing of Macro materials shot up by 34% as sheet-metal-cutting growth of 30% was led by the market in China.
Most significantly, fiber laser revenues, up 34%, represented 47% of total laser revenues, further eroding CO2 lasers’ market share to 13% of the total as CO2 revenues in 2017 declined by 14%. Solid-state lasers, which in prior years had reducing market shares, experienced a rebirth as high-power disk laser revenues propelled a strong 26% increase, thanks to sales into the metal-cutting and welding markets. Making a notable contribution to overall laser revenue growth was the burgeoning markets for high-power diode and excimer lasers in the Other category.
Application markets
Marking (including engraving) represents about 15% of all industrial laser revenues. An increase of 7% in fiber laser revenue continues to eat away solid-state lasers’ share as an unrelenting reduction in unit selling prices drove market growth, specifically in China. CO2 lasers for engraving applications remained a positive area of growth for that laser.
Source: Strategies Unlimited/ILS
In the Micro Materials sector, high-value excimer laser sales for mobile phone and hand-held display applications showed a 56% growth as system deliveries peaked in 2017. Lasers with output power <500W found a growing market in Additive Manufacturing (a 30% gain) and Non-Metal Processing (up 9%), and Fine Metal Processing (fine blanking) showed two long-term growth opportunities.
Among the Macro (=> 1 kW) applications, Welding/Brazing tallied the strongest growth at 50% as fiber for welding and high-power diodes for brazing increased industry acceptance. Increasing demand for sheet-metal-cutting laser systems, primarily in China and other Asian countries, boosted growth from a modest single-digit growth pattern to a recent-year high of 29%. And a fast-growing market for production-rated Additive Manufacturing systems caused a spurt in high-power fiber, diode and CO2 lasers.
The Future
Looking ahead to 2018, global companies in manufacturing project a repeat of 2017, all things being equal. Under these circumstances, industrial laser manufacturers are also bullish about market strength in the coming year, expecting a slightly diminished first-half growth, compared to 2017’s ebullient experience.
Expect revenue growth in 2018 to return to a modest, but industry-acceptable, single-digit level of 7%. Two factors drive our expectations: the 2017 spike in laser cutting in Asia will cool down and return to a more-normal 5% growth pattern, and second-half delivery schedules for high-priced excimer laser annealing systems for display production will start to wind down.
We expect Marking, Micro and Macro laser revenues will experience single-digit growth, which has consistently been the trend in these markets. Lest readers see this as an overly cautious forecast, remember a simple marketing maxim — before you can have growth, you must match prior years’ sales. For industrial lasers, the target is the superheated $4.3 billion market of 2017.
One cautionary note — the recession of 2008/9 will be 102 months old in January, and wise economists cite this as a strong aberration according to CNBC[1]. So a word of caution, typical economic cycles are 58 months, so it wouldn’t be remiss to Google recession forecasts periodically. Those who were surprised by the start of the Great Recession of 2008/9 can speak to this suggestion.
David Belforte is Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Laser Solutions.
References:
1.) Mobasheri, A. (2017, June 27). Op-Ed: A history of economic cycles going back to the 1850s suggests a recession is near. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/27/op-ed-a-history-of-economic-cycles-suggests-a-recession-is-near.html
