Additive manufacturing (AM) has exploded in the last few years.
No longer just a tool for quick plastic prototypes, AM now works with metal and can be used to create specialized parts that cannot be produced with traditional processes.
The process is not complicated in theory: A bed of metal powder is laid out. A laser is focused
As is common in most university research environments, necessity is the mother of invention. In this case, a lab needed to ensure the performance of three different laser sources that spanned a range from 700nm to 1800nm.
Why does measuring your laser beam help you maintain quality processes? In this week’s video, we explain the purpose of measuring your beam with three case studies that illustrate success:
Every laser user, along with their superiors, wants the laser system to operate optimally. When these systems aren’t optimized, time and money is lost through lower cut speeds, increased dross on the edges of the cuts, and more frequent down-time due to maintenance.
We are honored that our Beam Profiler, BeamWatch AM received the Platinum award which is the highest possible award in the Laser Focus World Innovators Awards this year.
The BeamWatch® AM is an integrated laser measurement system designed to measure critical laser beam parameters for laser-based additive manufacturing systems. Watch the full video here:
Here’s a surprising statistic: Nine out of ten laser technicians have no idea what M² is.
Most laser beam characteristics are easy to put your finger on: laser beam width, position and divergence angle are generally known to those that work with lasers – and if not, can be learned quickly.
Much like a light ball that degrades over time, a laser beam at the work surface has to be maintained and preserved in order to keep it’s high & precise performance.
Why does measuring your laser beam help you maintain quality processes?
Just imagine the following situation: you’re a well trained and experienced manufacturer engineer.
Your company had just purchased a laser to heat-treat metal parts but something was happening during the use of the laser that was causing the treated parts to fail the quality control checks afterwards.
If you have a laser, you need to measure it.
As in every year – Ophir’s 2018 new catalog covers a wide range of laser power and energy sensors, meters and laser beam profiling systems for medical, industrial, defense, and research applications.
We would like to dedicate this blog post to all of you who came by our booth (#507) at the 2018 Photonics west Trade show.
Among many other exciting products, we were glad to introduc the new Centauri laser power meter for the very first time!