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Ultrashort-pulse laser drilling Reducing laser additive manufacturing costs Additive manufacturing in Eastern Europe

Joining plastics to metals

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IS THE GALVO IN YOUR SYSTEM STABLE AND ACCURATE? Thousands of layers of sintered material... Hundreds of hours of build time… Aerotech’s AGV-HP high-accuracy galvo scanners offer: • 95%). Developed by CAILabs since 2013, MPLC technology has achieved record results in shape parameters, depth of field, and energy efficiency. It makes it possible to generate standard shapes for the laser industry, such as flat-top and Bessel beams (FIGURE 3), as well as customized shapes for more specific applications, regardless of the wavelengths used. In addition, it offers new features such as the combined shaping of several beams, enabling the generation of complex shapes.

Wasted energy Transverse position

increasing number of applications. Long reserved for prototyping and micromachining applications with small production volumes, this technique is increasingly used as a top method for a growing number of applications on a larger scale, such as the manufacturing of arterial stents, OLED panels, and injection heads9 with greater and greater productivity. To ensure sufficient production rates with optimum machining quality, laser beam shaping maximizes the efficiency of the process. This is why it is necessary to have

In the future

The constant evolution of USP laser sources, especially in terms of power, efficiency, and cost, makes USP laser microdrilling a process that can be used by an

a beam shaping technology that is able to meet the challenges of new microlaser drilling applications, accompanying the evolution of the process. ✺ REFERENCES 1. M. Mielke, Laser Focus World, 49, 11 (Nov. 2013); http://bit. ly/2RJY0eg. 2. K. Sugioka and Y. Chang, Light Sci. Appl., 3, e149 (2014); https://go.nature.com/2UN2ouN. 3. K. Sugioka, Nanophotonics, 6, 2, 393–413 (2017); http://bit. ly/2MTc1p6. 4. S. Sullivan, Industrial Laser Solutions, 31, 3 (May/Jun. 2016); http://bit.ly/2Gvpr9w. 5. E. Mottay, Industrial Laser Solutions, 32, 4 (Jul/Aug. 2017); http://bit.ly/2TIrRFP. 6. K. Fuse, Laser Tech. J., 12, 2, 19–22 (Apr. 1, 2015); http:// bit.ly/2MYpLz2. 7. M. K. Bhuyan et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 97, 081102 (2010); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3479419. 8. F. Courvoisier, J. Zhang, M. Bhuyan, M. Jacquot, and J. M. Dudley, Appl. Phys. A, 112, 29–34 (2013); http://bit. ly/2Gs6wwq. 9. B. Peatman, Industrial Laser Solutions online (May 3, 2017); http://bit.ly/2RMhgaQ.

SAMI LAROUI ([email protected]) is a pre-sales engineer at CAILabs, Rennes, France; www.cailabs.com. There, he contributes to the development and commercialization of innovative optical solutions that optimize the quality and performance of laser machining processes.

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Laser additive manufacturing moves forward in Eastern Europe SEVERAL COMPANIES ARE ADOPTING THE TECHNOLOGY, BUT MORE R&D IS NEEDED

EVGENY MOLCHANOV

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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 the European scientific society. The main research and development (R&D) program is Horizon 2020, a program that is working to develop Industry 4.0 and localized additive technologies. Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia have independent academic backgrounds and their own R&D centers. Over the last 10 years, substantial investment was made in the technological 3D printing base in universities and corporations that only found a few success stories for industrial production. Company adoption

On March 19, 2018, SondaSys (Ogrodzieniec, Poland; www. sondasys.com) began production using stereolithography (SLA) and selective laser melting (SLM) 3D printers in cooperation with the Chinese 3D printing company ZRapid Tech (Suzhou, China; www.zero-tek.com). At the Seventh International Conference on Lasers in Medicine (held July 13-13, 2017 in Timisoara, Romania), interest was shown for new applications in medicine with laser-based additive manufacturing methods for metal-ceramic. The Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Riga, Latvia) includes in the “Research program for

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FIGURE 1. Using SLM, it is possible to make stainless 316L components with many angles.

2015-2020” roadmap that 3D printing is one of the most important trends for R&D and education. The education of IT engineers for this industry has already started. Many players see huge potential in joining IT industrial platforms at companies that are producing, developing, and designing new products because this offers the possibility for efficient cooperation. Using production capacity is an open question for many companies and focuses on main advantages for every business, as it is not always necessary for companies to buy their own machines or hire specialized staff. Russia, the biggest economy in Eastern Europe, has huge potential, but needs a lot of R&D for every application. Many of the Russian Government’s corporations have announced programs for developing industrial technologies and have invested in it—however, moving it into the industrial phase remains a challenge. One of the metal powder suppliers to the Russian market is Polema JSC (Tula, Russia; www.polema-rus.com), which mastered production of materials for metal 3D printing in 2014. www.industrial-lasers.com

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In 2018, the company commissioned and started the unique equipment stock. The project is remarkable because the company not only started production of the traditional materials for additive manufacturing, but also has the possibility for industrial production of spherical powders of refractory metals such as tungsten, molybdenum, chromium and close sizing. The research work at the company is also developing new powdered materials with unique properties that are on the way to the market. Polema sees great potential in the additive manufacturing market and presented powders for 3D printing at the Formnext 2018 trade fair (held November 13-16, 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany). The main technology equipment producers like EOS (Krailling, Germany), SLM Solutions (Lübeck, Germany), and TRUMPF (Ditzingen, Germany) want to find the best suitable business models with local corporations and R&D partners for adaptation of their processes to local requirements. Conmet (www.conmet.ru), an implant producer from Moscow, has its roots from worldwide titanium producer VSMPO AVISMA (Verkhnaya Salda, Russia; www. vsmpo.ru) and previous owner Tetuhin Vladislav. Conmet started with a TRUMPF machine to develop processing for production of personal implants. It is not easy to meet medical regulations for implementing new technologies everywhere. The open

question is certification for using implants in daily surgical practice. Major interest for laser additive manufacturing came from turbine and jet engine manufacturers because of the big advantages that GE (Boston, MA) brought to this business. United Engine Corporation (UEC; Moscow – www.uecrus.com) is involving R&D academic partners and investing in a program of interest in additive technologies like SLM for production and laser cladding for repairing and production. Efforts for developing processes and issues with certification for aviation need to be done before we can see printed turbine blades in aircraft. Use of ceramics for jet engine components and printing them is very positive news. 3D printing for space applications is very interesting for economic issues. The Russian Government offered several R&D grants for equipment and processes and this is still in the development phase. The same situation exists in the nuclear industry, with huge potential and regulation limitations. The United Company RUSAL (Moscow; https://rusal.ru), the world’s second largest aluminum company by primary production output, is trying to find new markets for aluminum powder through additive technology development. Many activities are focused on business diversification with aluminum printing. The company has its own facility for aluminum

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N EXT-DAY S H IP P IN G FOR S ELECT ORD ERS DDTC REGISTERED FIGURE 2. An assortment of stainless steel 316L parts, ready for polishing, made using SLM are shown. www.industrial-lasers.com

Made in USA

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Best uses

Flexibility is one of the largest advantages in 3D printing fit to Industry 4.0 paradigms. Additive technologies have almost 100% flexibility in design, so the next step is to fit them with other production processes and get more flexibility for all of them. As an example, sheet processing technologies 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 combination of 3D printing and fully automated sheet processFIGURE 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 alumito Industry 4.0 bending force. The idea is to move designing sheet num powder. metal products with requirements for production with flexible robotSovremennoe Oborudovanie (Solver Group; Moscow – www. ized press-brake cells. It is possible to make technological prosolver.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 comproduction is possible because a theoretical bending model calpanies with additive technologies. Owners and management of culates all material spring-back and spring-forward for complex production companies are increasingly interested in additive techbending geometrics and raw material verification. nologies that are complicated enough for their own high-quality Additive technologies can be successfully integrated into proimplementation. It is a big advantage in reducing production time duction when all issues, such as processing, economics, and manfor changing one product’s specification to another, technologiagement, 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 addifor 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 expenlevel of competence in a wide range of basic and auxiliary techsive 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 developCompanies 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 advaninquiries 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 is a huge potential for 3D printing in industrial businesses and vision for checking roughness after 3D printing on the surface. This it is one of the most attractive technologies for new business, application needs to have new algorithms for analysis with high resbut it needs to show how to bring the economy to another level olution and different geometry in millisecond time. A very important 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 ([email protected]) is the commercial director at Rena Solutions, Tolyatti, Russia; http://rena-solutions.ru. for big verification applications.

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CALENDAR MARCH

FOR SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: Toll-free: 1-800-869-6882; International Callers: 1-512-982-4277; Fax: (866) 658-6156; [email protected]; web: ils-subscribe.com IN EUROPE: Mailfast, JFK/BOS/850858, P.O. Box 66, Hounslow, United Kingdom TW5 9RT; Fax: 44 20 7504 8207 Group Publisher Alan Bergstein (603) 891-9447 • [email protected] Editor-in-Chief David A. Belforte (508) 347-9324 • FAX: (508) 347-7737 • [email protected] Associate Editor Lee Dubay (603) 891-9116 • [email protected] Editorial Assistant Virginia E. Belforte International Editorial Advisory Board Bo Gu – PhD, MA, MsC (laser processing in China) Geoff Shannon – Ph.D., BS (laser welding, micromachining) Stan Ream – MS, BS (laser materials processing) Ronald D. Schaeffer – PhD, MS, BS (laser micromachining) Milton S.F. Lima – Ph.D., MS, BS (laser processing in South America) Kunihiko Washio – PhD, MS (solid-state laser materials processing in Japan) Anant Deshpande – MS, MBA, M.Tech (laser processing in India) Brian Victor – MS, BS (laser materials processing) Andreas Thoss – PhD (laser processing in Europe) Creative Director Meg Fuschetti Production Manager Sheila Ward Senior Illustrator Christopher Hipp Audience Development Manager Debbie Bouley Ad Services Coordinator Alison Boyer Murray (918) 832-9369 • [email protected] Marketing Comm. Manager Adrienne Adler www.pennwell.com EDITORIAL OFFICES Industrial Laser Solutions For Manufacturing

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Custom Article Reprints: Increase exposure by including custom reprints of a recent article in your next promotional or marketing project. High quality, custom article reprints are available in both print and electronic format by contacting: Jeff Nichols (413) 442-2526 FAX: (413) 442-2527; [email protected] For assistance with marketing strategy or ad creation, please contact: Marketing Solutions Kaci Wheeler 918. 832.9377 • [email protected] www.industrial-lasers.com

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18-21 International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC), Kissimmee, FL; www. lia.org/conferences/ilsc 20-22 LASER World of PHOTONICS China 2019, Shanghai, China; www.world-ofphotonics-china.com 20-22 ICALMP 2019: 21st International Conference on Advances in Laser Materials Processing, Dubai, UAE; https:// waset.org/conference/2019/03/dubai/ icalmp 31-April 4 Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference (AMUG 2019), Chicago, IL; www.amug.com/amug-conference APRIL

25-27 BLECH India 2019, Mumbai, India; www.blechindia.com/2019/english

29-31 Laser Safety Officer Training, Orlando, FL; https://www.lia.org/training/ non-medical/classroom-courses/lasersafety-officer-training/2019-05-29 JUNE

3-7 Laser Safety Officer with Hazard Analysis Training, Orlando, FL; https:// www.lia.org/training/non-medical/ classroom-courses/laser-safety-officerhazard-analysis-training/2019-08-19 4-6 Advanced Laser Applications Workshop (ALAW 2019), Plymouth, MI; http://alaw.fmanet.org 24-27 Lasers in Manufacturing (LiM) 2019, Munich, Germany; www.wlt.de/lim 24-27 LASER World of PHOTONICS 2019, Munich, Germany; http://world-ofphotonics.com

29-May 2 AeroDef Manufacturing Conference (AeroDef 2019), Long Beach, CA; www.aerodefevent.com

JULY

MAY

AUGUST

14-16 EASTEC 2019, West Springfield, MA; www.easteconline.com

14-15 Industrial Laser Safety Officer Training, Orlando, FL; www.lia.org/ training/non-medical/classroomcourses/industrial-laser-safety-officertraining/2019-08-14

15-16 Industrial Laser Safety Officer Training, Novi, MI; www.lia.org/training/ non-medical/classroom-courses/ industrial-laser-safety-officertraining/2019-05-15 20-23 RAPID + TCT 2019, Detroit, MI; https://rapid3devent.com 20-24 The 8th International Congress on Laser Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP 2019), Osaka, Japan; www.jlps. gr.jp/lamp/lamp2019

9-11 SEMICON West 2019, San Francisco, CA; www.semiconwest.org

14-16 Laser Safety Officer Training, Orlando, FL; www.lia.org/training/nonmedical/classroom-courses/laser-safetyofficer-training/2019-08-14 19-23 Laser Safety Officer with Hazard Analysis Training, Orlando, FL; www.lia. org/training/non-medical/classroomcourses/laser-safety-officer-hazardanalysis-training/2019-08-19

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

Advertiser ............................................................................................................. Page Aerotech, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................C2 Amada America ..............................................................................................................................2-3 Elixir Photonics.................................................................................................................................. 9 II-VI, Inc............................................................................................................................................. 4 IPG Photonics Corporation ................................................................................................................ 7 Johnson Plastic Plus ....................................................................................................................... 16 Laser Mechanisms, Inc. ..................................................................................................................C3 nLIGHT, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Nuburu Inc....................................................................................................................................... 21 Ophir-Spiricon, Inc. ......................................................................................................................... 13 PhotoMachining, Inc. ......................................................................................................................20 Scanlab AG ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Trumpf, Inc. .....................................................................................................................................C4 United Lens ..................................................................................................................................... 25 Industrial Laser Solutions® (ISSN 1523-4266), is a registered trademark. © PennWell Corporation 2019. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information via direct mail, please let us know by contacting us at List Services Industrial Laser Solutions, 61 Spit Brook Rd, Suite 501, Nashua, NH 03060. Printed in the USA. Printed in the USA. GST No. 126813153.

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my view Then and now

S GROWING LASER INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO SOLVE PROCESSING PROBLEMS

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everal widely promoted applications, very high power (10 kW+) thick-section fiber laser cutting and laser cutting underwater, prompted me to recall that I have been involved in the field of high-energy density material processing for a long time, as these were ‘goes around comes around’ processes. Actually, I’ve been involved for a very long time, as I will celebrate 50 years in industrial laser material processing next year. And prior to this, I also had seven years in electron beam welding. My laser background was entwined with that of laser weapons, which were brought back to mind in a recently published, very readable book written by friend and associate Jeff Hecht—Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon (Prometheus Books). Back then, as a member of the Research Staff at Raytheon Company, I was part of a ceramic engineering group charged with growing ruby crystals to make the rods for high-output-power solid-state lasers, in a company bid for substantive government funding. Jeff covers this laser development period nicely in his book, although he passes on this early Raytheon effort. But he does mention how material processing lasers, those I eventually worked with, were at one point considered as an alternative to unproven new laser technology. Jeff also discusses a then-secret, high-energy laser that was being tested in a lab adjacent to the industrial high-power CO2 application lab when I was Director of Applications at Avco Everett Metalworking Lasers. Every time they fired off a pulse, it was followed by a giant blowdown of byproducts that prompted its then-secret name—Thumper. Industrial Laser Solutions Editorial Advisor Stan Ream, who was our applications engineer then, today still remembers that “It used to scare the c..p out of us and dust fell off the walls.” These gases were sucked up by our air conditioners and fed into our laser enclosures,

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where they caused the CO2 laser beam to ‘blossom’ and lose focus right in the middle of a process. This generated consternation among visiting manufacturing engineers and there was always a lot of excuses as the ambient air cleared. We alibied answers to questions about it from our potential customers, many of whom returned to their industrial companies with tales of the secret laser experiments they had overheard. Well, that was then and this is now. It’s 2019, and the more-than $5 billion laser industry continues to deliver advanced laser solutions to today’s processing problems. A qualified group of authors has contributed feature articles on current hot topics: additive manufacturing, joining plastics to metals, controllable beam shaping, and black marking of medical devices. Ahmed Maamoun (McMaster University) addresses concerns with expensive cost and the fabricated part’s quality in additive manufacturing aluminum parts by sharing his research on solutions to some related challenges by using recycled aluminum powder and how process maps can be generated for additive manufacturing and post-processing treatments to achieve desired quality (see page 14). Companies in Eastern Europe may find this useful, as Evgeny Molchanov (Rena Solutions) reports that laser additive manufacturing is in a catchup mode because user companies there are slowly finding cost-effective solutions (see page 24). Perhaps hotter in Europe than in the U.S. is laser joining plastics to metals. Annett Klotzbach and peers (Fraunhofer IWS) have achieved self-defined goals of developing productive solutions for direct and form-fit joining (see page 18). And Europe also seems to be leading the charge with adaptive beam shaping to simultaneously improve laser drilling process results, writes Sami Laroui (CAILabs; see page 22). David A. Belforte [email protected]

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