Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
C O M
Ultrashort-pulse
laser drilling
Reducing laser additive
manufacturing costs
Additive manufacturing
in Eastern Europe
Joining plastics
to metals
1903ILS_c1-c4.indd 1
Aerotech_ILS_1903 2 3/6/19 11:59
2/11/19 11:38 AM
AM
V O L 3 4 I N O . 2
MARCH/
A P R I L 2 0 19
A robot-guided
spot-welding gun for
metal-thermoplastic
connections is
shown. (Courtesy:
Fraunhofer IWS)
P.
18
Features
14 application report 22 application report
Departments
5 Update
27 Calendar
27 Ad Index
28 My View
DABbling
A blog by DAVID A . BELFORTE
David shares his insights and opinions on current
activities affecting industrial laser materials processing.
www.industrial-lasers.com/dabbling.html
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es
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Laser Manufacturing Facility in Brea, CA th
su
1903ILS01-04.indd
AmaAme_ILS_1803 21 3/6/19 11:59 AM
d Manufacturing
AMADA is committed to the engineering
and manufacturing of the world’s most precise
and productive machine tools. Our most pop-
ular series of laser machines and advanced
automation systems are manufactured in California
The ENSIS Series is available in
— providing localized manufacturing to meet 3015 and 4020 models and can be
the specific design needs of North American configured with CL automation
fabricators. options to best suit your specific
manufacturing needs.
Laser cutting systems currently being man-
ufactured in California include the ENSIS Series
and the LCG Series. AMADA’s ENSIS Fiber
Laser technology provides continuous process-
ing of thin-to-thick materials without requiring a
lens change or additional setup. The LCG Series
combines optimal power and cutting speed to
efficiently process a wide variety of material
types and thicknesses.
Automation systems range from shuttle
tables to the innovative AMS CL — a modular
system that allows fabricators to seamlessly
transition from a single cycle loader to a multi-
shelf tower that can support multiple lasers.
AMADA understands the distinct challeng-
The LCG Series is also available in 3015 and 4020
es today’s manufacturers face. That’s why we models and can be configured with CL automation
provide a complete line of laser cutting systems options to best suit your specific manufacturing
that range from 3kW to 9kW. No other com- needs. (Shown with AMS 3015 CL Cycle Loader)
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1903ILS05-13.indd 17
IPGPho_ILS_1801 3/6/19 11:59
12/21/17 2:21 AM
PM
update
Laser marking technology for QR codes
on tires enters mass production
ALSDORF, GERMANY – 4JET Technolo-
gies has developed a laser marking solu-
tion to individually and durably mark tires
with a machine-readable QR code, which
is now in mass production for automotive
OEMs. Luxury automaker BMW (Munich,
Germany) has been fitting its first-volume
models with the new technology since the
fall of 2018. At the same time, two leading
manufacturers of truck tires have chosen
to introduce QR codes for new projects
that are scheduled to go into mass pro-
duction in 2019.
At the TIRE Technology Expo (held
March 5-7, 2019 in Hannover, Germany),
4JET informed attendees about its sig-
nificant progress. Approximately 20 tire The SCANNECT App software module allows for reading laser-marked QR codes on the
factories on three continents are able to low-contrast black sidewalls of a tire.
meet the requirements for durable and
machine-readable codes at economical being delivered. The technology enables as well as adding graphics or information in
cost, and several automobile and tire man- adding customer-specific sidewall infor- plain writing. For more information, please
ufacturers are planning follow-up projects mation to stock tires after their production, visit www.4jet.de.
at the moment.
The SCANNECT (short for “scan and
connect”) application allows for tires to
be traced throughout the entire life cycle.
Core to the solution is a laser marking 3D printing method uses two kinds
process that allows for the tire mark- of light, making it 100X faster
ing with individual QR codes, which are
engraved into the sidewalls durably and ANN ARBOR, MI – A team of
protected against abrasion. The high con- researchers at the University
trast of the engraving enables the code to of Michigan (U-M) has demon-
be read reliably by optical reading meth- strated a new approach to 3D
ods. Reading systems have been devel- printing (also known as additive
oped for use in tire logistics that ensure manufacturing) that lifts complex
reading rates of >99.9%. shapes from a vat of liquid up to
Furthermore, 4JET has developed the 100X faster than conventional 3D
SCANNECT App, a software module to printing processes.
be integrated in mobile apps that allows The method solidifies the liq-
for reading QR codes on the low-contrast uid resin using two lights to con-
black sidewalls of a tire (FIGURE). The “app- trol where the resin hardens, and
in-app” solution enables easy integration of where it stays fluid. This enables
code reading into mobile applications like the research team to solidify
online shops or fleet management solu- the resin in more sophisticated
tions. For quality control of the process, the patterns. They can make a 3D
company has developed a grading solution bas-relief in a single shot rather A new way to 3D print uses two lights to control
that allows for evaluation of the code qual- than in a series of 1D lines or 2D the solidification of resin, enabling complex shapes
ity inline or by means of a desktop device. cross-sections. Their printing to be pulled from a vat at 100X the print speed
The QR codes can be engraved either at demonstrations include a lattice, of conventional 3D printers. (Image credit: Evan
the tire plant, after the remolding, or before a toy boat, and a block M (FIGURE). Dougherty)
www.nlight.net
www .industrial-lasers
NLight_ILS_1903 1 .com MARCH/APRIL 2019 Industrial Laser Solutions 11
2/15/19 1:42 PM
X-ray laser pinpoints how defects ufacturers have been using a trial-and-er-
ror approach with different types of metals
46 pounds.
1903ILS05-13.indd 113
OphSpi_ILS_1903 3/6/19 11:59
2/21/19 10:15 AM
AM
a p p l i c a t i o n r e p o r t
Optimized additive
manufacturing for
lightweight metallic
components
RECYCLED ALUMINUM POWDER ENABLES Optimal processing window of the as-built
aluminum alloy parts fabricated by SLM
T
Scanning speed 99.3 99.8 Speed (mm/s) 3.2 6
(mm/s)
Decrease rel. 1300 Increase Ra
1400 density Undersize
Decrease rel. Potential
1300 Increase density decrease
Ra Ra
he upcoming industrial revolution 1200 1000
known as Industry 4.0 promises a Undersize
new age of advanced manufactur- Oversize
1000 Potential 800
ing. Industry 4.0 is powered by the 200 240 280 320 decrease Ra 250 280 310 Potential
Power (W) Power (W) increase rel. density
current development in some fields,
such as additive manufacturing (also FIGURE 1. The effect of the SLM process parameters on the
known as 3D printing), autonomous quality of as-built AlSi10Mg parts is shown.
robots, predictive maintenance and analytics, software inte-
gration, and cybersecurity. Additive manufacturing of metals
offers a variety of solutions to reduce current design and man- Recently, some significant contributions to improve the qual-
ufacturing limitations, and therefore will improve part perfor- ity and reduce the production cost of parts produced using
mance and customization. SLM were achieved by the author during his Ph.D. research.
Selective laser melting (SLM) is the commonly used tech- The work focused on optimizing the quality and cost of addi-
nique for the additive manufacturing of metals, using a laser tively manufactured aluminum parts applied in some critical
beam to melt each powder layer according to the slices gen- applications specifically for the metal mirrors of high-power
erated from the 3D CAD model. The technique can provide laser system or wide-view space telescopes.
near-net shape objects compared to subtractive manufactur- The primary goals of this research focused on reducing or
ing (CNC machining), and thus will have a significant impact eliminating the defects derived from the as-built parts such as
on workpiece development. microstructure inhomogeneity, porosity, and surface defects.
SLM can also be used to produce efficient tools for forming These targets were achieved through five comprehensive stud-
and die casting technologies. ies followed by a case study of a typical TMA telescope mirror.
Additive manufacturing of aluminum alloys promises a pro-
duction of efficient, flexibly designed, and lightweight parts Cost-effective recycled powder
using the SLM technique. However, some challenges to widen A full characterization of both fresh and recycled aluminum alloy
SLM applications, such as obtaining consistent material prop- (AlSi10Mg) powder, according to ASTM F3049-14, shows the
erties, improving the quality of fabricated parts, and reducing possibility of reusing it to be part of a cost-effective additive
their production cost, are an active research issue. manufacturing process using the SLM technique.1
(FIGURE 3).4 The increase of surface microhardness is extended properties. The method was studied as a localized treatment
along a specific depth from the sample surface up to 500 µm. on a large surface area of the as-built and hot isostatic pressed
The compressive residual stress generated along the peened (HIPed) AlSi10Mg parts using multiple FSP tool passes. The
area could lead to an improvement of the mechanical proper- influence of FSP on the microstructure, hardness, and residual
ties and fatigue strength of the sample surface. stresses of parts was investigated.5 FSP transforms the micro-
structure of parts into an equiaxed grain structure. A consistent
Friction stir processing for deep microstructure homogenization was achieved over the processed
localized surface treatment surface after applying a high ratio of tool pass overlap of ≥60%.
Friction stir processing (FSP) is considered to be an intense FIGURE 4 shows a map of microstructure and hardness that was
plastic deformation process that could change the material prepared to assist in the selection of the optimal FSP parame-
ters for attaining the required quality of
SLM (as-built) the final processed parts.
It is worthwhile to note that the pro-
cess maps developed in the studies
could help to customize the fabricated
z Hardness (HV)
part characteristics according to the
110
AlSi10Mg 100 desired quality to achieve its design
90 requirements. The ongoing efforts in
80
70 the R&D sector of the additive manufac-
60 turing field promise more considerable
50
40 achievements to overcome the as-built
FSP As-built HIP FSP FSP FSP
FSP defects completely. After that, additive
90% 25% 60% 90%
Tool overlap manufacturing could supply a qualified
part that satisfies both design and qual-
FIGURE 4. Friction stir processing of AlSi10Mg parts produced by SLM is shown. ity requirements.
JPPLUS.COM
1-800-869-7800
1-800-86
16JohnPla_ILS_1811
Industrial Laser
1 Solutions MARCH/APRIL 2019 www.industrial-lasers .com
10/19/18 10:52 AM
www.industrial-lasers.com
ANNETT KLOTZBACH
L
oad-adapted hybrid con-
nections made of metals
and thermoplastics have
become more important
as they are used for sev-
eral industrial applica-
tions, especially in the area
of lightweight construction. For efficient process
chains and specific load cases, an optimized pre-
FIGURE 1. Laser surface
treatment and joining technology, as well as adapted An industrial bonding process also has its dif-
pretreatment of mild
tools for process simulation and characterization of ficulties, though. While in mechanical connec-
steel before thermal
properties, are required. For this purpose, the laser tions, the transfer of loads is achieved by means
direct joining is shown.
can be the key to success. of a pure form and force fit, but bonding requires
With a strict implementation of function-inte- an optimized material contact between the sur-
grated lightweight construction, local load differences influ- faces. The adhesive forces acting on the boundary layer of both
ence the use of materials of different classes. The connection materials, which is only a few microns thick, react very sensi-
of the various subcomponents places special demands on tively to changes. Contamination by oils and preservatives or
the joining technology. For example, metal inserts and screw flatness tolerances can lead to drastic losses in strength. To
bushings are bonded onto plastics during the injection mold- achieve transmission strength comparable to that of a screw
ing process. Preferred joining processes are the attachment connection, large surfaces are bonded.
of clips, screw connections, or rivets. However, gluing has also However, bonding proves to be uneconomical due to the
increasingly found its way into the automotive industry, espe- process sensitivity, the required connection area, and a large
cially where plastic fairing parts are bonded with metallic stiff- number of individual process steps. Typically, both joining part-
ening structures. ners are cleaned or pretreated before bonding, followed by the
Consider the tailgate of a BMW i3, for example, where application of the adhesive, fixation of both joining partners,
more than 11 meters of adhesive seam provide structural and the curing of the adhesive (chemical reaction).
strength, improved crash performance, and simple toler- Efficiency increases of the industrial bonding processes
ance compensation. have, for example, been achieved by using a laser pretreatment.
thermoplastic must be maintained. The contact pressure also plays can easily be adapted to different heat dissipation conditions by
an important role, as it balances the tolerances so that the cavities scanner systems, inductive heating requires a geometry-adapted
can be filled by plastic and fibers. coil design. Corresponding finite element simulation tools have
However, there are also disadvantages with the laser process. therefore been developed and validated at Fraunhofer IWS. They
The principle of thermal direct joining is based on simultaneous are based on the COMSOL Multiphysics platform, and consider
pressing of the parts against each other and heating. Therefore, a the local energy coupling as well as the material-dependent heat
direct accessibility to all joints must be guaranteed. With complex conduction. Since in most cases it is only possible to work in the
parts, this is often impossible. outer field of the coil, it is also necessary to use field concentrators.
With a suitable design, the coupling efficiency can be increased up
Fast heating by induction to a factor of 10. FIGURE 4 shows the basic principle of eddy current
In the case of complex accessibility, short-term heating by induc- guidance using field concentrators.
tion offers many advantages. An electromagnetic alternating field is
created by a geometry-adapted current-carrying coil, which gener- Induction or laser heating: which is the best?
ates eddy currents and thus heats the electrically conductive joining Comparative studies with both laser and inductive heating have
partner. Depending produced comparable joint strengths. To compare the results
on the frequency obtained with bonding, tensile shear tests were carried out on
range used, either single overlapped joints in accordance with DIN EN 1465 (join-
volume heating takes ing surface: 12.5 × 25 mm2). The strength of material combina-
Inductor Inductor
place or the heat is tions of continuous glass fiber-reinforced PA6 with stainless steel,
generated directly in aluminum, or mild steel was approximately 25 MPa. The fracture
the boundary layer occurred almost exclusively in the base material of the composite.
by exploiting the When using higher strength materials such as carbon fiber-rein-
skin effect. FIGURE 4. The basic principle of eddy forced polyetherketoneketone (PEKK), strengths of up to 30 MPa
In contrast to current guidance using field concentrators with partial fiber breakage could be achieved. The strengths deter-
laser heating, which for heat efficiency increase. mined are in the range of systems joined or bonded with adhesion
promoters. The resistance of the joint to alternating climatic loads
was also successfully validated.
If, on the other hand, the load limits in oblique or head tension are
considered, it must be stated that there is still a need for research.
This results from the adhesion mechanism, them to die-cast aluminum. Additional
From foils...
consisting primarily of a form-fit with small flanges for a screw connection, as well
amounts of adhesion bond. as seals, can thus be omitted.
When considering the achievable join- In addition, the technology has been
ing times, significant differences between further developed so that automated
inductive and laser heating could be deter- point-like joining is also possible. With the
mined. Therefore, induction enables more technology marketed as HeatPressCool- 40 x 10µm foils
targeted heating so that, for example, the Integrative (HPCI), the joining partners are
above-mentioned standardized joining sur- pressed together similar to a conventional
faces of mild steel with 1–2 s heating time spot-welding gun (FIGURE 5). A ring induc-
was required. In the case of laser heating, tor arranged around the punch heats the To 1mm copper
3–5 s had to be applied to heat the mild joining area. The thermoplastic melts and
steel through without locally risking melt- binds to the metal. The special feature of
ing of the surface. this technology is the possibility of locally
Thermal direct joining has been devel- connecting plastic panels to metal inserts
oped and qualified by research institu- for use in, for example, kitchen utensils,
tions and companies for several years. lamps, and other consumer products. 1mm Copper thick
However, the industrial applications in Furthermore, larger components can
series production are still very limited. be flexibly pre-fixed to overall structures
The reason for this is the complex com- or directly bonded. Due to the compact
ponent design leading to function-inte-
grated hybrid designs. The choice of the
design of the system technology, the tools
are designed in such a way that conven-
...AND
right material in the right place requires
the innovative viewpoint of the designers.
tional handling technology can be used
(such as industrial robots), and thus the
FAST
The pure substitution of a metal compo- HPCI technology can be integrated into
nent by a plastic or composite part leads complex assembly chains (FIGURE 6). This is
to weight savings on the one hand, but at the best precondition for a comprehensive
a significantly higher cost. Nevertheless, introduction to industrial manufacturing. ✺
certain areas of application for the tech-
nology have already crystallized. For ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
example, laser structuring before injec- HPCI is a registered trademark of THE BLUE LASER
tion molding is used as an alternative to Fraunhofer IWS.
primer application or plastic modification
COMPANY™
for small series production. In thermal ANNETT KLOTZBACH (annett.klotzbach@iws.
fraunhofer.de) is Group Leader, Bonding and
direct joining, the industry aims to man-
Composite Technology at the Fraunhofer
www.nuburu.net
ufacture housing components or con- Institute for Material and Beam Technology
necting elements from temperature- and (Fraunhofer IWS), Dresden, Germany; www.
media-stable thermoplastics to connect iws.fraunhofer.de.
M
on the order of a
FIGURE 1. A fuel-injection head hole picosecond (10-12 s)
drilled by femtosecond laser pulses is down to a few tens
shown. (Credit: TRUMPF) of femtoseconds
icrolaser drilling is one of (10-15 s). Each pulse
the most common and carries a certain amount of energy, but its briefness allows it
frequently used laser pro- to attain considerable peak power (up to several terawatts). In
cesses by industry. The the case of USP lasers, the pulses are so short and energetic
wide variety of laser source that they cause a near-instantaneous removal of the material
types makes it possible to being irradiated. Rather than removing material by having their
process a diverse range energy absorbed as heat like more conventional lasers, the
of materials (metals, ceramics, semiconductors, polymers, ultrashort pulses of these lasers cause the ionization of mat-
organic materials, etc.) with unprecedented reproducibility, ter without thermal effects. This effect is known as cold abla-
accuracy, and speed. Microdrilling is prominent in many indus- tion, allowing minimal internal stress, cracks, burrs, and other
tries, such as automotive, aerospace, and electronics, and even defects normally caused by heat absorption.2 USP lasers make
for laser surgery and in the food industry. For example, the abil- it possible to quickly drill up to several thousand holes per
ity of this process to drill high-aspect-ratio holes down to the second7 with diameters smaller than with any other process (a
micrometer scale has recently led to the development of new few micrometers; FIGURE 1). In addition, because this process
injection nozzles for the automotive industry, improving engine requires little to zero post-processing of the machined mate-
fuel efficiency up to 30%.1 rial, high-speed lasers can provide a high production rate at
lower costs,4 and the availability of increasingly compact and
Ultrashort-pulse lasers economical commercial USP lasers justifies their use for more
Drilling smaller holes, increasing the drilling rate, enhancing and more industrial applications.
the accuracy and quality of the holes, and reducing the energy
consumption of the process led to a constant need to increase Laser beam shaping
the output and quality of the industrial processes. This, in line However, to truly maximize the effectiveness, quality, resolu-
with new, specific needs, leads to the regular development of tion, and efficiency of the process, it is necessary to apply a
new laser drilling techniques. One of the latest major innova- laser beam shaping technology adapted to the given appli-
tions is the use of what are known as ultrashort-pulse lasers cation. A laser beam naturally has a non-uniform transverse
(USPs; see Editor’s Note) micromachining tools. energy distribution (FIGURE 2), which can lead to unnecessary
Ultrashort-pulse lasers deliver short and intense pulses of energy losses, inaccuracies, and drilling irregularities. The
light, generally at high repetition rates (sometimes more than type of material, the parameters of the holes, the quality of the
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Industrial Laser Solutions International Editorial Advisory Board decided, by consensus, to use the term
ultrashort-pulse (USP) lasers for industrial laser material processing with pico- and femtosecond pulses. It may be more
common to see ultrafast-pulse (UFP) lasers used in some markets, but Dr. Geoff Shannon (Coherent), a leading femtosec-
ond process developer and ILS Editorial Advisor, makes a good case for the USP laser acronym: http://bit.ly/2HZD9Ed.
Wasted energy
SAMI LAROUI (sami@cailabs.com) is a pre-sales en-
In the future
Transverse gineer at CAILabs, Rennes, France; www.cailabs.com.
Spot diameter position The constant evolution of USP laser There, he contributes to the development and com-
sources, especially in terms of power, effi- mercialization of innovative optical solutions that opti-
FIGURE 2. Non-uniform distribution of the ciency, and cost, makes USP laser micro- mize the quality and performance of laser machining
intensity of a laser beam is shown. drilling a process that can be used by an processes.
Laser additive
manufacturing
moves forward in
Eastern Europe
SEVERAL COMPANIES ARE
EVGENY MOLCHANOV
T
he Eastern European countries
Poland, Czech Republic, Romania,
Slovenia, Slovakia, Livonia, Latvia,
and Estonia are a part of the European
Union (EU) and are deeply involved in FIGURE 1. Using
the European scientific society. The SLM, it is possible 2015-2020” roadmap that 3D printing is
main research and development to make stainless one of the most important trends for R&D
(R&D) program is Horizon 2020, a program that is working to 316L components and education.
develop Industry 4.0 and localized additive technologies. with many angles. The education of IT engineers for this
Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia have independent academic industry has already started. Many play-
backgrounds and their own R&D centers. Over the last 10 years, ers see huge potential in joining IT industrial platforms at com-
substantial investment was made in the technological 3D print- panies that are producing, developing, and designing new
ing base in universities and corporations that only found a few products because this offers the possibility for efficient coop-
success stories for industrial production. eration. Using production capacity is an open question for
many companies and focuses on main advantages for every
Company adoption business, as it is not always necessary for companies to buy
On March 19, 2018, SondaSys (Ogrodzieniec, Poland; www. their own machines or hire specialized staff.
sondasys.com) began production using stereolithography (SLA) Russia, the biggest economy in Eastern Europe, has huge
and selective laser melting (SLM) 3D printers in cooperation potential, but needs a lot of R&D for every application. Many
with the Chinese 3D printing company ZRapid Tech (Suzhou, of the Russian Government’s corporations have announced
China; www.zero-tek.com). At the Seventh International programs for developing industrial technologies and have
Conference on Lasers in Medicine (held July 13-13, 2017 in invested in it—however, moving it into the industrial phase
Timisoara, Romania), interest was shown for new applications remains a challenge.
in medicine with laser-based additive manufacturing meth- One of the metal powder suppliers to the Russian market
ods for metal-ceramic. The Transport and Telecommunication is Polema JSC (Tula, Russia; www.polema-rus.com), which
Institute (Riga, Latvia) includes in the “Research program for mastered production of materials for metal 3D printing in 2014.
at www.unitedlens.com
or call 508-765-5421
N EXT-DAY S H IP P IN G
FOR S ELECT ORD ERS
DDTC
REGISTERED
9001:2015 Made in USA
FIGURE 2. An assortment of stainless steel 316L parts, ready for polishing, made using
SLM are shown.
Best uses
Flexibility is one of the
largest advantages in 3D
printing fit to Industry 4.0
paradigms. Additive tech-
nologies have almost 100%
flexibility in design, so the
next step is to fit them
with other production pro-
cesses and get more flexi-
bility for all of them.
As an example, sheet
processing technolo-
gies such as laser, water
jet, plasma cutting, and
punching also have a very
high level of flexibility, but
are limited because after
cutting, many parts go
to bending. Press-brake
bending technology can
be automated, but it is not
a flexible solution due to
the limitation of bending
tooling and the combina-
tion of 3D printing and fully
automated sheet process-
FIGURE 3. Holes of different diameters in 316L stainless steel printed using SLM are shown.
ing running manufacturing
powder production and the best way to commercialize alumi- to Industry 4.0 bending force. The idea is to move designing sheet
num powder. metal products with requirements for production with flexible robot-
Sovremennoe Oborudovanie (Solver Group; Moscow – www. ized press-brake cells. It is possible to make technological pro-
solver.ru) is an integrator of solutions with additive technologies. cesses with a fully automated design and production chain. This
The company business involves modernizing manufacturing com- production is possible because a theoretical bending model cal-
panies with additive technologies. Owners and management of culates all material spring-back and spring-forward for complex
production companies are increasingly interested in additive tech- bending geometrics and raw material verification.
nologies that are complicated enough for their own high-quality Additive technologies can be successfully integrated into pro-
implementation. It is a big advantage in reducing production time duction when all issues, such as processing, economics, and man-
for changing one product’s specification to another, technologi- agement, are considered. One of the main issues is production
cal and assembly operations, facilitating the designs of the parts, cost estimation in the development stage because it is the easiest
and assemblies being developed can be accomplished with addi- for cost reduction. When product development is complete and
tive technologies. Complex projects require integrators with a high it enters the production phase, it is very complicated and expen-
level of competence in a wide range of basic and auxiliary tech- sive to change production costs.
nological processes. International experience shows that the best way to use 3D
Rena Solutions (Tolyatti, Russia; www.rena-solutions.ru), an printing is to develop new business models and optimize it.
automation processing integrator, has experience in develop- Companies that successfully integrate additive technologies in
ing solutions for many automotive companies, including Tier 1 production first find advantages in business processes. There
(FIGURES 1-3). The big change in the last two years has been more are other ways to satisfy customers with new products or advan-
inquiries for automation and quality control for 3D printing parts tages, activities in universities and associations with workshops,
from big industrial players. This company is developing technical conferences and exhibitions, and shows. In Eastern Europe, there
vision for checking roughness after 3D printing on the surface. This is a huge potential for 3D printing in industrial businesses and
application needs to have new algorithms for analysis with high res- it is one of the most attractive technologies for new business,
olution and different geometry in millisecond time. A very import- but it needs to show how to bring the economy to another level
ant issue in this task is using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to be effective. ✺
to detect deviations and creating a base with part photos. At the
moment, there is not an understanding of how to scale technology EVGENY MOLCHANOV (evgeny.molchanov@rena-solutions.ru) is the commercial
for big verification applications. director at Rena Solutions, Tolyatti, Russia; http://rena-solutions.ru.
S
everal widely promoted applica- where they caused the CO2 laser beam to ‘blos-
tions, very high power (10 kW+) som’ and lose focus right in the middle of a pro-
thick-section fiber laser cutting and cess. This generated consternation among visiting
laser cutting underwater, prompt- manufacturing engineers and there was always
ed me to recall that I have been in- a lot of excuses as the ambient air cleared. We
volved in the field of high-energy density materi- alibied answers to questions about it from our
al processing for a long time, as these were ‘goes potential customers, many of whom returned to
around comes around’ processes. Actually, I’ve their industrial companies with tales of the secret
been involved for a very long time, as I will cele- laser experiments they had overheard.
brate 50 years in industrial laser material process- Well, that was then and this is now. It’s 2019,
ing next year. And prior to this, I also had seven and the more-than $5 billion laser industry contin-
years in electron beam welding. My laser back- ues to deliver advanced laser solutions to today’s
GROWING LASER
ground was entwined with that of laser weapons, processing problems. A qualified group of authors
which were brought back to mind in a recently has contributed feature articles on current hot
INDUSTRY published, very readable book written by friend topics: additive manufacturing, joining plastics
and associate Jeff Hecht—Lasers, Death Rays, to metals, controllable beam shaping, and black
CONTINUES TO and the Long Strange Quest for the Ultimate marking of medical devices.
Weapon (Prometheus Books). Ahmed Maamoun (McMaster University)
Back then, as a member of the Research Staff addresses concerns with expensive cost and the
SOLVE PROCESSING
at Raytheon Company, I was part of a ceramic fabricated part’s quality in additive manufacturing
engineering group charged with growing ruby aluminum parts by sharing his research on solu-
PROBLEMS crystals to make the rods for high-output-power tions to some related challenges by using recy-
solid-state lasers, in a company bid for substan- cled aluminum powder and how process maps
tive government funding. Jeff covers this laser can be generated for additive manufacturing and
development period nicely in his book, although post-processing treatments to achieve desired
he passes on this early Raytheon effort. But he quality (see page 14).
does mention how material processing lasers, Companies in Eastern Europe may find this use-
those I eventually worked with, were at one point ful, as Evgeny Molchanov (Rena Solutions) reports
considered as an alternative to unproven new that laser additive manufacturing is in a catchup
laser technology. mode because user companies there are slowly
Jeff also discusses a then-secret, high-en- finding cost-effective solutions (see page 24).
ergy laser that was being tested in a lab adja- Perhaps hotter in Europe than in the U.S. is
cent to the industrial high-power CO2 application laser joining plastics to metals. Annett Klotzbach
lab when I was Director of Applications at Avco and peers (Fraunhofer IWS) have achieved self-de-
Everett Metalworking Lasers. Every time they fined goals of developing productive solutions for
fired off a pulse, it was followed by a giant blow- direct and form-fit joining (see page 18).
down of byproducts that prompted its then-se- And Europe also seems to be leading the
cret name—Thumper. Industrial Laser Solutions charge with adaptive beam shaping to simultane-
Editorial Advisor Stan Ream, who was our appli- ously improve laser drilling process results, writes
cations engineer then, today still remembers that Sami Laroui (CAILabs; see page 22).
“It used to scare the c..p out of us and dust fell off
the walls.” These gases were sucked up by our David A. Belforte
air conditioners and fed into our laser enclosures, belforte@pennwell.com