Posts Tagged ‘laser pointer’

Development and Trend of Asian Laser Market

水曜日, 8月 30th, 2017

The Asian laser market is closely linked to China’s high production capacity. Despite slowing economic growth last year, China remains the dominant market for growth in Asian laser products. In the next five to ten years, China’s laser and optoelectronics industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 10-15%. During this period, China’s laser industry will also make greater progress. Chinese laser companies are increasingly competing with Western producers, and other advanced national manufacturers must respond to this trend and adapt to the pace of China’s economy.

red laser pointer

In fact, almost all of the Asian laser pointer applications are growing, and even part of the microelectronics industry will be almost completely locked in Asia. Based on the continuous expansion of new applications, the growth of the core market is far from over. In some areas, the level of specialization in individual industrial sectors is increasing.

Machinery manufacturing

In the machinery industry, China’s demand for laser manufacturing products is the primary driver of growth. At present, the human-intensive manufacturing industry to a higher degree of automation has undergone a significant change, which improves the high-quality machinery and automated process technology needs.

Over the past year, 1-2kW fiber lasers in China’s demand is still high. However, at present, cutting applications are also increasingly inclined to higher power. In the lower and medium power range, more and more laser light sources are now available from local blue laser pointer manufacturers, many of which have also introduced power up to 1kW rack-mounted lasers. This year, the demand for cutting-type lasers has turned to 3-4kW, the future will advance towards 6-8kW.

However, the first 10-12kW power laser system has also been delivered. Japanese cutting machine manufacturers to its domestic market mainly to provide 2-4kW output range of machines, and more than 6kW large format laser cutting system is exported to Europe and the United States.

Automobile industry

The growth of the Asian automotive industry is mainly from China and India. In 2016, only China produced 28.1 million cars. In the process, China has further consolidated its position as the world’s largest auto market, with the largest increase in passenger cars reaching 16% year-on-year. While India’s overall purchasing power is low, the market growth rate is not as fast as China, India in 2016 car production of 4.5 million, the world’s fifth. In addition, South Korea after 11 years missed the world’s top five car manufacturers last year, vehicle production fell 7%, ranked sixth in the world. Nevertheless, South Korean first-line carmakers still expand their market share in Asia, which accounts for 62% of Korea’s total car exports. While Japan had to face another round of sluggish production.

Now the application of lasers in China is also mature, especially in the “white body” part, while Sino-foreign joint venture car manufacturers also help speed up the introduction of green laser light technology. In the “white body”, the Japanese more and more traditional technology has also been replaced by laser processing. In addition, laser processing is expected in the application of aluminum welding will also be a significant increase.

Laser cutting, welding and marking applications in the automotive body manufacturing applications more and more widely, the trend of automotive electronics has gradually begun to dominate the laser application in the automotive industry development speed. Battery manufacturers to become an important consumer of laser light, last year’s investment has increased significantly. These lasers cover a wide range of applications including batteries and their enclosures, modular designs and their packaging. 1μm lasers are ideal for processing materials such as aluminum and copper. In addition, a highly dynamic galvanometer scanning solution can increase the productivity of almost all applications in the battery industry.

For primary manufacturers, the application of fuel injection systems for welding and balloon cutting is becoming more and more important. Asian car manufacturers are also increasingly interested in the latest applications such as glass cutting.

Medical engineering industry

Many areas of Asia have a strong demand for medical devices and implants, coupled with government support, for the 500mw green laser application to create a lot of space.

In medical device engineering, often from UV to mid-infrared range of different laser technology. The use of the correct wavelength for a given material ensures effective operation and good productivity characteristics. Depending on the accuracy requirements, a short pulse nanosecond laser or a (ultrashort pulse) picosecond laser may be used. The ultrashort pulse reduces the size of the heating zone and combines the cold working process to become the most accurate technology. The method is used in demanding applications such as stand production.

In the field of stents, often faced with various national price laws and regulations constraints, such as in India, the government set the price of stents to standardize the cost of medical engineering products. As a result, suppliers in the United States and elsewhere have withdrawn from the market in India. For laser manufacturers, this brings both opportunities and uncertainties.

In addition, laser marking or lettering function is also being further improved. By changing the color of the material, combined with metal annealing, carbonization or plastic foaming and other means, can produce non-corrosive mark, without the use of burrs to modify the surface of the treatment, without the introduction of additional materials. There are few technical limitations in the form and content of 50mw green laser marking, whether it involves implants or the marking of medical equipment. Even if only fine marks with characters of several μm height are possible.

Other industries

As mentioned at the outset, markets in other Asian markets, such as the textile and packaging industry, the semiconductor and microelectronics industries, or solar technology, continue to show positive growth momentum. The importance of laser processing coincides with the manufacturer’s desire to produce a smaller, more powerful, more reliable device.

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Advantages of Fiber Laser in Cutting Applications

水曜日, 5月 17th, 2017

Fiber laser as one of the core devices of high-end manufacturing equipment, fiber laser fit industrial transformation of the large environmental background, the difficulty of high, large changes in the requirements of multi-dimensional processing applications, industrialization and scale of the process to accelerate.

 

The reason, on the one hand, several kilowatt-class continuous high-power burning laser technology is mature, the emergence of a strong fiber laser manufacturers, the formation of a competitive mass production scale, to ensure adequate supply of the market; the other hand, fiber laser The advantages of material processing to make it favored in the market, more efficient solution to traditional enterprises with high production costs, low production efficiency pain points, so there is a huge market space.

red laser pointer

Taking the laser cutting application as an example, the processing characteristics of fiber laser cutting machine, CO2 laser cutting machine and YAG solid laser cutting machine are compared, and the advantages and advantages of fiber laser in laser cutting are discussed.

Operation requirements and maintenance: CO2 laser need to adjust the optical path, and the effect of optical path adjustment will affect the cutting quality, so the operator must have a certain skill requirements, and the need for external optical path maintenance; YAG solid laser thermal lens effect is obvious, ; Fiber 200mw green laser fiber transmission, no adjustment, maintenance-free, high stability, easier operation. Cutting speed and effect: Fiber laser cutting speed is 2-3 times the same power CO2 laser, especially in the metal sheet cutting, fiber laser cutting machine cutting speed in the three types of laser cutting machine has obvious advantages. Fiber laser cutting machine beam quality is good, cutting gap is small, cutting edge formation.

 

Material applicability and application industry: CO2 laser more widely applicable materials, and fiber laser on metal materials, including aluminum, copper and other high-reflective material applicability, more in line with sheet metal manufacturing, 3C household electrical appliance industry, the new energy industry processing requirements The Energy consumption and comprehensive cost: fiber laser photoelectric conversion rate of more than 30%, with the power CO2 100mw laser pointer cutting machine photoelectric conversion rate of about 10% to 15%, solid-state laser photoelectric conversion rate of 3%. Fiber laser power consumption is only 20-30% of the same power CO2 laser, the combined cost is lower.

 

Fiber laser cutting more sophisticated, focusing focus up to 25um, small heat affected area, small slits, small workpiece deformation. As a flexible processing method, fiber lasers can be combined with automatic control system to achieve automatic tracking, automatic search edge, automatic nesting material, greatly enhance the production efficiency, its metal sheet cutting widely used, the performance is better, can better meet the fine Cutting processing requirements. Fiber lasers have replaced a considerable portion of CO2 blue laser pointer and YAG solid-state lasers in the field of sheet metal cutting applications, and future breakthroughs in high-power fiber lasers will likely accelerate this alternative.

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Review and Forecast of Global Laser Material Processing Market

火曜日, 1月 24th, 2017

In 2016, from the materials processing and lithography market, buy laser pointer revenues to 4.072 billion US dollars once again become the largest market segments. Communications and optical storage laser sales of 37.32 billion US dollars, in second place. Followed by research and military market $ 877 million, medical and beauty market $ 838 million, instrument and sensor market $ 608 million, and entertainment, display and print market $ 268 million.

For the global manufacturing industry, 2016 is the most volatile year. Putting aside the normal cycle of growth recession, worries about Britain’s departure from Europe, China’s economic problems and the political uncertainties of US political events are worries about the growth prospects of the manufacturing sector. However, industrial lasers enjoyed another year of growth in global manufacturing in 2016, thanks to double-digit sales growth in high-power fiber burning lasers for sale, a surge in excimer laser revenues, and a rise in ultrafast laser applications Significant growth.

burning laser pointer

Kilowatt-class fiber lasers for metal cutting and welding applications account for 41% of total industrial laser revenue in 2016. Overall, sales of fiber lasers increased by 12 percent in 2016, in part due to a decline in sales of CO2 lasers (-4 percent) and solid-state lasers (-1 percent). High-power direct semiconductor lasers and excimer lasers have earned the fastest annual revenue growth (54 percent) in terms of percentages, and these lasers have been in strong growth as their market base is lower, with excimer lasers Of the annealing application is also a major driving force.

The sales of fiber lasers have contributed significantly to the growth of total green laser pointer revenue. In 2016, IPG’s revenue from fiber lasers is expected to be close to $ 1 billion. The company is another $ 1 billion-a-year company with total revenues of more than $ 857 million in 2016 and strong sales of its excimer laser by the end of 2016 and the successful acquisition of Rofin Corporation. The company’s revenue for fiscal 2015/2016 is close to $ 2.8 billion, with laser technology alone generating more than $ 1 billion in revenue.

Automotive, aerospace, energy, electronics and communications (smart phones) materials processing applications, continue to drive strong growth in sales of industrial lasers. Micromachining applications, including all applications using power <500W lasers, account for 35% of the total market for industrial strongest laser pointer with a growth rate of 105% in the three major industrial laser application categories (micromachining, macro machining, marking) , Which includes the display applications that require excimer lasers – a coherent representation in its third quarter ending July 2, 2016, “As expected, we have received a large number of lasers from flat panel display annealing applications Orders, including a single order amount of more than 100 million US dollars. “Macro processing applications (including all need> 500W power laser processing) in industrial laser revenue to occupy the largest market share (47%), thanks to fiber lasers, Won the macro application market share of 44%. Finally, marking applications (including engraving) contributed about 18% of industrial laser revenue, maintaining steady growth of 3.9%, which is dominated by fiber lasers, accounting for 49% of total sales in the marking sector. Cutting is the most important application on two levels: one is to generate revenue, and the other is the use of high power fiber lasers. Cutting is critical for both industrialized and emerging economies, and its growth prospects are closely related to the GDP of a country. With the economic downturn in 2016, cutting the market growth rate of only 3.5%. Oddly enough, the demand for laser welding (3.4%), driven by global automotive industry and pipeline and downhole tubing welding, compensates for the slump in the cutting market. Non-metal processing applications in fiber-reinforced polymers combined with fine metal processing contributed 5% to the overall market growth. Increased material manufacturing (more specifically 30mw laser pointer metal deposition) increased strongly by 22.1% in 2016, mainly due to the recognition of the aeroengine industry and the use of medium- and high-power CO2 Lasers and fiber lasers.

The state of manufacturing is expected to be a 2016 replica in 2017 and growth in some markets (East Asia, South America and Eastern Europe) will continue to slow. Industrial laser market is expected to achieve 8.7% of revenue growth. Marking the market, with the unit price continues to decline, marking the laser’s revenue will decline; in micro-processing, with the excimer laser shipments continue to increase, and the importance of non-metallic processing continues to increase , Micro-processing laser revenue will grow 38%; in macro-processing, is expected in 2017 macro processing will occupy the industrial red laser pointer market share of 47% of the total revenue, and 2016 flat, including fiber laser market will grow 8%.

Revenue from lithography lasers is also increasing. Dutch company ASML acquired the 24.9% stake ($ 1.1 billion) of Carl Zeiss Semiconductor in Germany by the end of 2016, after acquiring Cymer, the EUV and excimer light source manufacturer in 2012, Own business. “With high-performance optics, Zeiss Semiconductor offers an important subsystem for ASML’s semiconductor lithography scanners, which will help companies develop next-generation devices in the early years of the next decade,” ASML said. Extreme ultraviolet lithography system.

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When the Tactical Laser Weapons on the Battlefield?

火曜日, 12月 13th, 2016

Although the laser from the date of birth, by the military’s widespread attention, especially in the field of strategic anti missile. But because of the difficulties of the atmosphere, the optical attenuation, the heat dissipation and the target guidance, the development speed of the strategic high power laser pointer weapon is very slow. But since twenty-first Century, the U.S. military once again starting to focus on the development of high power solid state laser, which is used to perform short-range air defense and Antimissile Defence, warship tactical mission, and the U.S. military said a mysterious weapon again ahead of competitors.

In high power solid state laser fiber tactical laser weapon, because of its obvious advantages in efficiency, laser beam quality, system size, weight, firmness and cooling etc., is becoming the main source of tactical laser weapon. Recently, the U.S. military developed a variety of laser weapons prototype, all fiber laser weapons. Such as the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) regional defense against ammunition system of “rapier” project, the Navy tactical laser weapon system with laser weapon system project, the “army” (ADAM) and “Zeus Hummer laser ammunition to destroy the system” are used in fiber laser.

Among them, the “sword” is an airborne burning laser pointer weapons project, the goal is to reflect electricity or infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles, combat altitude of 15 km. The US Navy’s Mk38 shipborne laser cannon combat target is a large number of intensive small vessels, sea ships, air vehicles and so on. In 2011, the laser gun fired on air and surface targets. The US Army’s Regional Defense Anti-Ballistic System is primarily a threat to ground-based short-range air defense targets (rocket and unmanned aerial vehicles). In the 2012 and 2013 tests, the system successfully destroyed the UAV And small-caliber rockets. The “Zeus – Hummer laser ammunition destruction system” is installed in the famous “Hummer” car, with anti-mine and the ability to deal with roadside bombs.

In addition to the above, the US military there are some optical fiber tactical laser project. Now the US military tactical laser weapons for the development of very enthusiastic, in the “large area network” stage. The Pentagon in 2014 launched the third “offset strategy”, the core is the development of disruptive advanced technology weapons, continue to occupy an absolute advantage in the military competition. US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Walker believes that the third “offset strategy” is to establish the core of the advantages of precision-guided weapons in the successful escape of enemy precision-guided attacks while destroying each other. Many US military experts also believe that tactical 2000mw laser pointer weapons, is clearly the third “offset strategy” should focus on the development of the project.

China’s research and development of 20,000-watt (20KW) fiber laser, can be applied to China’s tactical laser weapons research and development? It is estimated that there is a distance. First of all, one of the key components of fiber laser weapons is single-mode fiber lasers. Its representative is the United States IPG photon 10KW single-mode fiber laser. In addition to being widely civilian, but also by the US military procurement of a large number of tactical laser weapons for the basic module. As mentioned above, the United States is developing and testing tactical laser weapons are mostly used by IPG’s this product. The company first developed in 2009, after 10KW single-mode fiber laser, also made no secret of their interest in the weapons market.

China’s Wuhan Branch sharp fiber laser developed 20KW fiber laser, should still be multi-mode fiber laser. From a technical perspective, the high-power fiber laser pointer single-mode and multi-mode. Combining several lower-power single-mode fiber lasers to produce a kilowatt output should be far easier than single-mode output in the kilowatt range. Previously the company developed the largest multimode fiber laser 4KW. If China’s production of 20KW fiber laser is a single-mode laser, then it is not to break the monopoly of foreign issues, to become the world’s first laser artifact. Because the world’s leading IPG company is also difficult to single-mode fiber lasers to 20KW, the technical community generally agreed that the upper limit of single-mode fiber laser is 10KW.

Then the field of tactical laser weapons, can not use high-power multi-mode fiber laser instead of the single-mode fiber laser is difficult. The answer is no. Because multimode laser power is large, but the beam quality is poor, it can not be applied to laser weapons, but only in industrial applications. Therefore, China’s 2 million-watt fiber laser main purpose is to break the monopoly, reduce the cost of imports, making laser manufacturing technology can be more applied to China’s high-end manufacturing.

However, we are quite confident that China will develop IP-based 10KW single-mode fiber lasers. China’s Wuhan Rui Branch, for example, in the company’s lead, China has initially achieved a 100% domestic fiber laser industry chain. In 2011, IPG company 10KW single-mode fiber green astronomy laser main technology founder, with 24 international patents and milestone “double-clad fiber laser” invention patent professor, had to Wuhan Rui Branch company inspection, China China has been able to have their own property rights of localization, industrial fiber laser shock and excitement, and expressed willingness to cooperate with the sharp Branch, to promote its accelerated development.

Once Chinese companies can develop 10KW single-mode fiber lasers, then almost immediately through the non-coherent synthesis of tactical laser weapons developed. The so-called “non-coherent synthesis” is to bundle multiple fiber lasers in parallel to guide them together in the same direction so that they can be superimposed in space, increasing total power. The development of laser weapons is the successful development of this method.

But only high-power single-mode fiber laser, is not able to break through all the tactical laser weapons? Obviously not. Because of this built-up laser weapons can not improve the brightness of the synthetic beam, and poor beam quality, range is limited, bulky. This fiber laser weapons can only be loaded on ships such a large platform, and to be loaded on fighters and ground vehicles, you need to produce a higher brightness, better beam quality laser, energy utilization higher, which requires Beam coherent synthesis and optical phased array technology.

For example, we said earlier that the US airborne 1000mw laser pointer weapons, “sword” project, using the 21-unit optical phased array, the 21 fiber laser beam synthesis of a single beam, the power efficiency of more than 35%, but also with atmospheric compensation , The influence of atmospheric turbulence disturbance on the laser beam can be avoided. In the test, this low-power array can be accurately hit the target 7 km distance, than the existing laser weapons increased by 4 km.

In addition, the United States also launched the “lightning” project, its operational objectives are reflective or infrared-guided air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles. The project uses a fiber laser array to develop a laser weapon system that is 10 times lighter and lighter than existing laser weapons and is mounted on aircraft platforms in a small volume and mass for aircraft self-defense and medium-range ballistic missiles defense. Therefore, only China in the high-power single-mode fiber lasers, beam coherent synthesis and optical phased array technology in these areas have made breakthroughs in the near future China’s tactical laser weapons will appear in the People’s Liberation Army warships, chariots and even like the Jian -20 such combat aircraft.

Laser weapons from the date of birth, had been regarded as anti-satellite strategic weapons. During the Cold War, it was reported that the Soviet Union used laser weapons to attack the US satellites, and later the United States is to test their own laser weapons, anti-satellite effect. October 18, 1975, the United States North American Air Defense Command Control Center reported that in the Indian Ocean over the 647 early warning satellite infrared detectors from the Soviet Union in the west of the strong infrared flash interference, can not work. November 17, 1975, two days, the US Air Force’s two data relay satellites, due to interference from the Soviet Union, infrared, and stopped working. According to the investigation, is the infrared attitude control device failure. May 22, 1980, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Thomas Roth in a news conference, said: “The US Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies have been identified, the Soviet Union is developing a laser capable of destroying satellite weapons systems “But the study is also going on in the US The Soviet Union may be a little ahead in terms of power consumption,” he added.

In addition, on October 17, 1997, the United States launched a laser beam with a surface chemical laser launcher to the US military weather satellite to be scrapped. This infrared chemical laser, known as MIRACL, first used high power lasers to illuminate airborne MSTI-3 satellites in low earth orbit in two separate shots. The green laser pointer beam hit the target point – the mid-range infrared camera. Irradiated, the infrared camera did not produce images, indicating that the satellite sensor has been attacked. Then the US Army and the use of low-power chemical laser for the second shooting satellite test, the infrared camera on the satellite 3 times. The success of this test is an important milestone in US Army laser ASAT weapons. But there is little public reporting on the subsequent development of MIRACL lasers.

http://www.generaccion.com/usuarios/119549/new-progress-in-fiber-bragg-grating-sensing-demodulation

http://laserman123.blogcu.com/analysis-of-china-s-3d-printing-industry/27863828

http://eyes123456.page.tl/SLS-Laser-Sintering-Technology.htm

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Preparation of Graphene by Laser Induced Phase Separation

火曜日, 12月 6th, 2016

High resolution transmission electron microscopy showed that only after a 30 ns laser pulse, the silicon carbide (SiC) substrate melted and separated into a carbon layer and a silicon layer. More pulses lead to carbon layers organized into graphene, while silicon leaves in the form of gas.

All our smart phones have a sparkling AMOLED display. At least two of the silicon transistors are fabricated by laser pointer annealing at least of each pixel in the display screen. Conventional methods usually use temperatures above 1000 degrees C to create them, and laser technology can give the same results at low temperatures, even on plastic substrates (melting temperatures below 300 degrees C). Interestingly, similar processes can also be used to produce graphene crystals. Graphene is a kind of strong and thin nano material made of carbon, and its electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity have attracted the attention of scientists all over the world.

The Basic Science Research Institute (IBS) research group of Professor KEON Jae Lee multidimensional carbon materials center and South Korea Advanced Institute of science and Technology (KAIST) CHOI Sung professor Yool’s team found that the phase separation induced by laser single crystal silicon carbide (SiC) mechanism to synthesize graphene. The study, published in nature communications, describes how the laser technology can separate a complex compound (SIC) into carbon and silicon.

Although the basic research on some understanding of the effect of excimer green laser pointer in transformation of elemental materials such as silicon, but because of the complexity and processing time of compound phase change ultrashort laser, and more complex compounds such as the interaction between silicon carbide has rarely been studied.

By using the high resolution image and molecular dynamics simulation, the scientists found that xenon chloride excimer laser with a 30 nanosecond single pulse irradiation can melt SiC, which leads to the separation of liquid SiC layer, get on the surface of a disordered domain with a graphite carbon layer (2.5 nm thick) and a layer of carbon the polysilicon layer (5 nm). Additional pulses are applied to the separation of the silicon, and the disordered carbon layer is converted into a multilayer graphene.

“This study shows that laser and material interaction techniques can be a powerful tool for the next generation of two-dimensional nanomaterials,” said Professor Keon. Professor Choi added: “using 400mw laser pointer induced phase separation of complex compounds, a new type of two-dimensional materials can be synthesized in the future.” Keon professor IBS is affiliated with the KAIST Institute of materials science and engineering, and Professor Choi is part of the KAIST Institute of electrical engineering and graphene research center.

http://venturebeats.userecho.com/topics/966-application-of-laser-technology-in-mobile-phone/

http://laserman123456.kinja.com/industrial-applications-of-micro-lasers-1789677003

http://eyes123456.deviantart.com/journal/The-Application-of-Tunable-Laser-in-Optical-Commun-649552834

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