LASER 2017: Product launches preview – part 2

08 Jun 2017

More early announcements from suppliers including II-VI, Raylase, Lumentum, Ingeneric, and NKT Photonics.

In just a few weeks’ time the photonics industry will gather again at Laser World of Photonics in Munich, Germany, to experience first-hand the latest developments in lasers, optical systems and related technologies. In the second of optics.org’s previews (the first can be found here), we profile some more new products that will be on show.

Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Deputy CEO of Messe München, said of this year’s show, “Around 1300 exhibitors and more than 30,000 trade visitors from more than 70 countries are expected in the Munich trade fair halls from June 26th to 29th. The sector’s leading researchers will also be meeting at the World of Photonics Congress.”

Visitors to Munich will also have the opportunity to learn more about Lumentum’s laser solutions for high-volume manufacturing. The company has pre-announced a range of new products that will be showcased, including: kilowatt fiber lasers for the most demanding macromaterials processing applications; ultrafast Industrial solid-state Lasers for high-precision ultrafast micromachining ; edge-emitting diode lasers for next-generation 3D sensing applications; and high-quality fiber-coupled diode lasers.

Lumentum has also lined up a speaking event on the show’s opening day, Monday, June 26th, when Erik Zucker, Senior Director, Lasers Products and Technology will give a presentation entitled “Efficient, robust, reliable – high-power, fiber-coupled laser diode pump source and application”, between 16:20 – 16:40 in the Lasers and Optics Forum, Hall B3 / B3.360.

II-VI’s fiber laser combiners enable fiber laser systems to scale to 10 kW by combining the output of multiple kilowatt class fiber lasers to achieve faster cutting or welding speeds, or to process thicker sheets of metal. These fiber laser combiners undergo extensive tests on the manufacturing line to ensure high reliability and maintenance-free operation.

“II-VI has leveraged decades of expertise in fused fiber technology to attain this high level of reliability at such high operating power and in what we believe is the smallest form factor on the market,” said Gary Lin, Vice President, II-VI Photop. “Customers are fast-tracking their qualification activities, the result of which we expect will soon accelerate the demand.”

The fiber laser combiners’ modular design provides port configurations ranging from 3x1 to 7x1, with a wide selection of input and output fiber types, all of which feature very low insertion loss and excellent output beam quality. II-VI’s broad portfolio of components for fiber lasers includes seed lasers, high power single- and multi-emitter pump lasers, acousto- optic modulators, multi-kW pump combiners, micro-optics for high power isolators and 10 kW IBS-coated laser optics. II-VI also offers multi-kW laser heads and laser light cables.

Accelerating laser processes

Laser deflection components developer Raylase will present a range of new products designed for accelerating laser processes and making them more efficient. Laser World of Photonics will also mark the European unveiling of the company’s new machine vision control solution with “Click & Teach” function. Another Raylase highlight at LASER will be the AM-Module, described as a highly integrative all-in-one solution for additive manufacturing. Innovative laser deflection developments for packaging applications will also be on show.

Raylase Machine Vision Control (MVC) is an “intelligent” machine vision solution that optimizes and monitors laser processes such as marking, perforating, cutting, drilling and welding, for a wide range of materials. This is possible thanks to a coordinated system comprising industrial camera, lenses, optical adapters, lights and Raylase’s weldMARK Vision and Click & Teach software modules. MVC uses reference points to automatically detect the position and rotation of parts. The laser process is adjusted according to the orientation of the part and is inspected immediately afterwards.

The AM-MODULE has been developed to process powdered metal alloys using bed fusion. It enables the production of very delicate and complex parts with footprints up to 500 x 500 mm. Typical applications for this flexible, highly integrative solution include industrial tool- and mold-making, automotive manufacturing, the aerospace industry and medical engineering.

Ingeneric will premier its new microlens arrays made with high refractive index glass. Manufactured in a precision glass molding process, they are characterized by high dimensional accuracy. Ingeneric develops customized arrays and takes them to commercial serial production.

At the trade fair, the company based in Aachen, Germany is presenting its new microlens arrays featuring up to 500 individual lenses and total dimensions of up to 60 x 60 mm, for application in beam shaping and light homogenization, for example.

When it comes to designing micro-optics for special applications, Ingeneric says its process offers significant degrees of freedom: “Compared to the etching process, optics produced by our method can be far more complex with a larger radius-to-aperture aspect ratio. Furthermore, the process excels with a relative radius tolerance better than 0.2%, which is fully reproducible in serial production.”

Dr. Stefan Hambücker, Managing Director, said, “We are not only opening up new markets to our customers. We also help them to improve their existing systems. They can improve the quality of their products while at the same time they meet the cost requirements of serial production.”

NKT Photonics, the Denmark-headquartered supplier of high performance fiber lasers and photonic crystal fibers, announces on its website: “Every second year something special happens in the photonics industry. For a few brief days, the Bavaria in Southern Germany becomes the photonics hub of the world as everyone gathers for LASER World of Photonics. In 2017, not only will NKT exhibit with our biggest-ever booth, we will also bring several new products. We have been working around the clock for a long time to present something special.”