We would like to thank Dr. Ron Schaeffer of Industrial Laser Solutions for writing this article about our ICALEO conference:
The Laser Institute of America (LIA)’s ICALEO conference in Atlanta last week drew over 400 people from over 30 countries. As usual, attendees were heavily skewed toward non-US citizens, with China in particular sending a strong delegation. The heavy foreign attendance is great on the one hand. This conference has become the worldwide go-to event for the principal movers and shakers in the laser industry. On the other hand, it is a bit sad that there are not more US attendees, and that especially applies to students. Maybe it is an issue of funding? It does cost some money to attend the event—for travel expenses and for missed time on the job—but even in venues where there are local universities involved in lasers, there does not seem to be any increase in student participation. Ways are being discussed at LIA to address this, including discounted or free enticements for students. Regardless of the success of this venture, it is clear that the LIA is actually, official name notwithstanding, the Laser Institute of the World.
Once again at ICALEO, processing of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) and glass were hot topics in the Microprocessing conference. One paper in particular presented by Spectra-Physics in Germany showed high-speed cutting of linear and irregularly shaped glass using a reasonably low-power femtosecond laser (SP Spirit). In addition to the two application areas above, a lot of time in the Microprocessing conference was spent on applications of ultrafast lasers, both picosecond and femtosecond. It is pretty amazing at all the new work being done with these cool laser sources.
You can read the full article here… http://www.industrial-lasers.com/articles/2015/10/follow-up-to-icaleo-2015.html
