Tag Archives: LIA Corporate Member

Meet Glowforge™ – February’s Featured Corporate Member

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Glowforge is a 3D laser printer that can create amazing things from various materials at the push of a button. In 2014, Glowforge was founded in Seattle, Washington with the goal of making CNC laser cutter/engravers cheaper, more capable and easier to use through a low-cost desktop unit that comes equipped with cameras, accelerometers and modern cloud-based software.

Meet Glowforge, February 2017’s Featured Corporate Member.

In 2015, Glowforge launched a crowdfunding campaign at Maker Faire in New York where their 3-D laser printer made its world debut. Their booth had extremely long lines as they ran prints for hundreds of excited visitors. The campaign was intended to reach $2 million in pre-orders, which was enough to give them the confidence to mass-produce their machines.

According to Glowforge, which is an LIA Corporate Member, the product was a hit and they garnered positive feedback from small businesses, inventors and creatives alike.

“It turns out a lot of people saw Glowforge and decided it would change their lives,” said Bailey Nelson, the company’s Community Manager. “30 days after the launch, we had received nearly $28 million in pre-orders for the Glowforge 3D laser printer, making it the largest 30-day crowdfunding campaign in history.”

Today, Glowforge credits its online community for the brand’s continued success. The community offers ideas, advice, and wisdom about working with lasers and other fabrication tools and techniques. Customer contributions include feature ideas, material suggestions, and crowd-sourced tutorial developments.

A row of Glowforge printers, courtesy of the company.

Since the launch, their staff has grown from 14 to approximately 40 employees and they are not slowing down. Currently, Glowforge is looking to hire talent with a wide range of skills, including electrical engineers and manufacturing engineers.

The company is proud of the features they have pioneered. One innovation called a “trace” allows users to draw designs with a pen. The designs are then automatically converted into printable files. Precision preview is another user-friendly option that allows customers to preview their designs superimposed on a live camera view of their material so they can drag them for perfect positioning.

Products Made on a Glowforge printer, courtesy of the company.

Another feature, 3D Autofocus, allows the laser beam to automatically focus on both smooth and curved surfaces. The technology measures the height of materials placed on the bed in several places so it can maintain the laser’s focus on various surfaces.

Among the unique elements of the Glowforge brand is their product’s ability to recognize materials. The onboard cameras automatically detect Proofgrade™ materials (a line of masked and prefinished materials designed specifically for laser processing) to automatically configure power, speed, and focus. With Proofgrade materials, users can choose variations like “cut” or “dark engrave” without having to determine speed and power settings.

“Our customers are the best in the world,” said CEO Dan Shapiro. “They tell us that Glowforge was just what they needed to help them scale their small business, prototype their latest invention from just a drawing, or level up the creative endeavors that had grown stale in their 9-5 jobs. We’re inspired every day when we see what they are doing with their Glowforge units, and we are honored to provide the tool that unlocks their creativity.”

For more information about LIA’s February Featured Corporate Member, please visit: http://glowforge.com.

This Corporate Member Feature was written by Brandon Kalloo in collaboration with Glowforge. 

ALIO Industries, Inc. – November’s Featured Corporate Member

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A pacesetter in the industry, ALIO Industries, Inc. is known for its innovative designs and successful production of precision motion systems. With over 300 standard products and numerous custom OEM designs, ALIO Industries repeatedly meets and exceeds the current application needs for precision, high performance and reliable motion.

Founded in 2001 by current owner Bill Hennessey, ALIO Industries is dedicated to building the most precise motion systems with unparalleled performance and reliability. The expert team at the Colorado-based company has created numerous products and product lines that prove integral to the industry.

Since its inception, ALIO Industries has designed and built a patented Hexapod product line that focuses on precision needs with the fiber and memes assembly industry. Today, the company has grown to offer over 300 standard products for True Nano® Precision motion systems with 6-D Point Precision® for the global precision industrial markets. ALIO Industries’ product range covers linear and rotary motion using both high precision mechanical and air bearings. The company also offers single-axis motion, integrated monolithic XY stages with closed and open centers, rotary axes and complex integrated multi-axis solutions – such as its patent-pending Hybrid Hexapod®, which is unparalleled in its 5 or 6 axis precision.

ALIO Industries developed this revolutionary product, which is among the company’s most important, to meet the demand for systems with better precision and performance than legacy motion systems. As a result, the Hybrid Hexapod® is more precise than traditional Hexapods or stacked stages, with forward and inverse kinematics that can be integrated with lasers and programmed with G-code as a CNC machine. This allows for precision laser machining, especially when kerf, chamfer or drilling precision holes are required.

With an unwavering focus on Point Precision®, ALIO Industries continuously provides the highest precision motion systems available across the globe by starting with rigid novel designs. The company utilizes unique machining techniques and careful and exacting assembly methodology, all while testing to standards that exceed the current ISO/ASME procedure requirements. ALIO Industries’ nanometer level bi-directional repeatability, flatness and straightness provide the basis of its novel 6-D Nano Precision® standard of motion systems.

Over the years, ALIO Industries has remained dedicated to meeting customer needs in a variety of industries. Most recently, the company has seen the largest growth from the electronics manufacturing industry, which has kept ALIO Industries doubling in size for several years. The company’s products are used for applications that range from metrology, basic inspection and display tests to laser machining glass and sapphire. To meet the latter demand, ALIO Industries will soon introduce its laser integrated gimbal motion system. This system for machining sapphire and glass, which allows for very large angular motion to machine edges over 90-degrees from the plan, can also be used for 3-D metal printing for turbine blades and complex geometric forms.

A member of Laser Institute of America (LIA) since 2013, ALIO Industries appreciates the organization’s focus and contacts, which aid in the company’s efforts in to further its networking and maintain product relevancy.

For more information, visit alioindustries.com.

 

October’s Featured Corporate Member – Buffalo Filter LLC

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A market leader, Buffalo Filter LLC, located in Lancaster, NY, produces technologies and solutions that are used to manage the hazards associated with surgical plume inhalation. Dedicated to eliminating the plumes, which contain harmful gases, respirable particles and biological matter that can transfer disease, Buffalo Filter works diligently to protect the individuals who care for others in surgical settings.

Buffalo Filter’s newest surgical smoke evacuator is the VisiClear system. Intuitive, ultra-quiet, and shelf/counter friendly are just a few of this system’s features.

Though now a wholly-owned business unit of the Texas-based Filtration Group, Buffalo Filter originally began in 1991 as a small, privately-owned company in Buffalo, NY, manufacturing its own brand of filters and smoke evacuation systems. When the Filtration Group acquired the company in 2013, Buffalo Filter joined the Group’s Life Sciences division. Since then, the company has continued to build upon its leadership role with the manufacture of hundreds of OEM, private label and co-labeled products. Along with this work, Buffalo Filter continues to provide the industry with its own brand of technologically-advanced evacuation equipment, filters and accessories, which are utilized in a wide range of medical specialties.

At the time of its inception, the small company was run by two engineers who originally made filters for the automotive industry. When Christopher Palmerton acquired the company in 1995, Buffalo Filter altered its course, beginning the manufacture of filters that eliminated the hazards medical professionals face in the field. Ever since, Buffalo Filter’s mission has been to ensure that healthcare workers across the globe remain safe amidst the dangers of surgical smoke. With a cancer-causing potency six times greater than that of a cigarette, surgical smoke has the ability to transmit bacteria and viruses and contains respirable particles that worsen respiratory ailments.

To protect medical professionals, Buffalo Filter provides the industry with numerous safety-related products for the operating environment, including: surgical smoke plume management systems, laparoscopic warming and defogging lens devices and electrosurgical accessories. In addition to its main work in the innovation and development of surgical smoke plume management devices and accessories, Buffalo Filter is also known for providing education about the harmful plumes and programs that aid organizations in the management of all aspects related to its exposure.

As awareness of surgical smoke plume hazards has grown in the past five years, more facilities have taken action to ensure the management of the plumes. When those facilities seek answers, Buffalo Filter continually responds by producing innovative solutions that meet the complex needs of each operating specialty. By doing so, the company has matched the delicate and precise nature of surgery with products that enhance, rather than inhibit, a surgical team’s ability to perform their work. Recognizing the differences in each operating environment, Buffalo Filter supplies the industry with specialized solutions by studying each environment’s needs and responding carefully and effectively to ensure the safety of the individuals in the field. Continuously working to improve solutions, Buffalo Filter has offered between two and three new innovations in the operating room safety and smoke evacuation space each year. The company will continue this tradition in early 2017 with the release of new products.

A member of Laser Institute of America (LIA) since 2006, Buffalo Filter strongly relates to the organization, as both entities remain dedicated to safety. Helping individuals avoid the long-term effects of surgical plume exposure is a source of pride for Buffalo Filter, and the company is proud to join LIA in meeting its safety goals in the field.

For more information, visit www.buffalofilter.com.

AdlOptica GmbH – August’s Featured Corporate Member

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Known for its versatile refractive laser beam shaping optics, AdlOptica GmbH provides technology that aids both industrial and scientific techniques. With a small team of experts that make up the company’s singular location in Berlin, Germany, AdlOptica GmbH’s reach extends globally, providing refractive beam shapers and special optics for a wide range of industries.

Named after Adlershof, Germany’s premier science and technology park, AdlOptica GmbH was founded in 2010 by its current owners, Vadim Laskin and Dr. Alexander Laskin. With the main goal of developing, manufacturing and promoting the company’s refractive beam shaping optics, the company has grown over the years, successfully creating a collection of more than 60 beam shaping product models.

AdlOptica GmbH’s expertly efficient piShaper, pShaper®, models can transform the intensity distribution of Gaussian TEM00 or multimode laser beams to flat-top – both uniform and top-hat – as well as inverse-Gauss and other profiles. This product line’s wide spectrum, which ranges from ultraviolet (UV) to Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR), is accompanied by a power that spans milliwats to kilowatts. With continuous wave and ultra-short pulse lasers, the models offer users a narrow spectral band and achromatic spot sizes that can expand from microns and centimeters to meters. These versatile products also provide a low sensitivity to misalignment, which ensures that piShapers easily and efficiently integrate into users’ existing equipment and research installations. Whether in industrial or scientific applications, AdlOptica GmbH’s family of piShaper products serve as solutions for a variety of laser techniques – from micromachining, welding and cladding, to the manufacturing of solar cells, florescence and confocal microscopy and even holography.

With the success of these products, the company’s Research & Development team remains dedicated to monitoring industry requirements and developing new beam shapers to meet changing needs. Most recently, the company has developed multi-focus optics, foXXus, which optimize energy distribution in industrial techniques and use the ever-growing power of modern lasers to optimize the productivity of material processing.

Constantly vigilant of the changing needs in the industry, the company works to improve processes for numerous markets. Based on growth within the industry over the years, AdlOptica GmbH also added aThermoXX to its product offerings. As athermalized protective windows, aThermoXX products improve welding and selective laser melting technologies through the reduction or elimination of the negative thermal effects that occur with the use of high power industrial lasers.

Additionally, since its inception, AdlOptica GmbH has recognized the switch to higher imaging resolution in micromachining techniques, as well as the growth of laser power and brightness. The company has answered the latter demand through its products, which convert high power to high productivity in various processes. AdlOptica GmbH also meets the need for the wide use of multimode fiber lasers and fiber-coupled solid-state and diode lasers by offering beam shaping optics that can be used efficiently with both types of lasers.

A member of Laser Institute of America (LIA) since 2011, AdlOptica GmbH appreciates the organization’s community of professional users and developers in industrial laser technologies and the ease with which members can communicate with their fellow industry professionals in the welcoming environment of LIA events.

For more information, visit www.adloptica.com.

Clark-MXR, Inc. – July’s Featured Corporate Member

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An industry leader in Ultrashort Pulse laser based micromachining and the production of ultrafast lasers and laser-based solutions for scientific research and industrial applications, Clark-MXR, Inc. is known for offering unparalleled contract manufacturing services and easy-to-use laser products at a low cost of ownership. Located in Dexter, Michigan, Clark-MXR, Inc. serves customers from universities, laboratories and industries across the globe.

Clark-MXR, Inc. was incorporated as a Michigan corporation in 1992, to acquire the assets of two running companies: Clark Instrumentation Inc., founded by Dr. William Clark, and Medox (MXR) Research, Inc., founded by Dr. Philippe Bado – a member of Professor Gerard Mourou’s research group. As the world’s first commercial ultrafast laser company, Clark-MXR, Inc. has introduced many first-to-the-market products since its inception, including its CPA-1000 in 1992. In addition, Clark-MXR, Inc. has been involved in the use of ultrafast lasers for micromachining based on research conducted at Professor Mourou’s laboratory at the University of Michigan.

The company’s products and services stem from its two main divisions: the Laser Products Division and the Micromachining Division. Responsible for designing, building and servicing ultrashort pulse lasers for scientific and industrial applications, the Laser Products Division also manufactures micromachining workstations that are used in industrial micromachining, micro-manufacturing and proof-of-concept process development. Its complete system solutions meet a variety of industry needs, from ultrashort pulse micromachining workstations based on Model CPA-Series Ti:Sapphire lasers to Model IMPULSE, Yb-doped fiber lasers and complete nonlinear spectroscopy systems. Additionally, this division of Clark-MXR, Inc. produces accessories, such as NOPAs and harmonic generators, and offers customized product development, consultation and collaborations.

The formation of the second division, the Micromachining Division, was initiated by the introduction and success of the first commercial ultrafast laser based micromachining workstation in 2002, Model UMW based on Model CPA-Series laser. Providing value-added service to the semiconductor, medical and other high tech industries, this division utilizes the company’s ultrashort pulse lasers to cover a range of tasks, from prototyping to routine part production.

The Micromachining Division consistently meets its goal of addressing the growing demand for micromachined parts using ultrafast lasers, which offer a superior quality when compared to traditional methods. Because of the company’s innovative technology and extensive knowledge from the last 20 years, Clark-MXR, Inc. can machine a wide variety of materials – including ceramics and refractory metals – without recasting, heat-affected-zone (HAZ), delamination or melting. The micromachining technologies utilized within this division of the company can be adapted for innovative research – from 3D tomography and geological sample analysis to laser ablation mass spectrometry and LIBS. With a clearly-honed expertise, state-of-the-art inspection facilities, and a dedication to working closely with customers, Clark-MXR, Inc. develops custom methodologies that successfully fulfill customers’ unique needs.

Over its history, Clark-MXR, Inc. has grown, now earning recognition as a premier company in the laser industry for ultrafast laser micromachining and for its numerous ultrafast laser products, including many first-to-market products and innovations. The range of products and services the company offers today includes Model CPA-Series Ti:Sapphire Ultrafast lasers, Model IMPULSE Yb-doped high power/high energy fiber lasers, Ultrafast Micromachining workstations,  and complete system solutions for micromachining and research sectors, including fully customized systems. In addition to its range of products, Clark-MXR, Inc. works to help the growing ultrafast laser based micromachining industry, among other things, through its Ultrafast Micromachining Handbook, which was introduced in 1999 and is now freely available on the Clark-MXR, Inc. website to familiarize individuals with the novel physics of ultrafast laser based material removal processes.

Since joining Laser Institute of America (LIA) in 1999, Clark-MXR, Inc. and its team have been actively involved in the organization, with Dr. William Clark serving as LIA president in 2005.

For more information, visit www.cmxr.com.