Laser technology's development direction and application trends

In the field of industrial manufacturing, laserpecker 12 lasers are also evolving in four directions: faster, higher, better, and shorter.

Laser technology is also evolving as a key driving force in industrial manufacturing. In short, lasers are moving in four directions: faster, higher, better, shorter.

The average laser power has reached 100,000 watts, and laser power is getting higher and higher. laserpecker metal engraving For welding 300mm thick steel plates, the first commercial 100,000-watt fiber laser was installed at the NADEX Center in Nagoya, Japan, in 2013. As laser cutting is developed to a higher power, its power is also increasing, reaching 8~12kW.

There is a continuous improvement in laser output beam quality requirements. Fiber laser beam quality problems have reached 100,000 watts of single-mode. In the past year, the brightness of fiber lasers, disk lasers, and directly affecting semiconductor lasers has improved significantly.

A laser with a short wavelength output covers the shorter band, so they are widely used. In many advanced manufacturing processes, cold processing is required, such as the manufacture of smartphones, which often requires the use of short-wavelength, short-pulse ultraviolet lasers. In addition to surface marking and semiconductor wafer processing, short-wavelength lasers have been widely used in drilling, cutting, and other applications.

It's getting faster and faster: Laser pulses are getting faster and faster, and ultrafast lasers are becoming more convenient to use, cheaper, more stable, and have more applications outside of the lab.

Market potential in the future

New applications in the future market have always been a concern.

With the development of environmental awareness, a variety of environmental cleaning technologies have been developed, including laser cleaning.

Using laser cleaning, the high intensity laser beam and the material culture are used to remove the surface of the workpiece material simultaneously, resulting in instant evaporation or stripping, without the need for chemical cleaning agents, green development pollution-free. This can be used to clean paint, oil, oxide layers, screws, rust, welding and so on.

Microelectronics, construction, nuclear power plants, automobile manufacturing, medical care, cultural relics protection, steel rust and mold decontamination, automobile manufacturing, construction and many other sectors use laser cleaning.

In the metal 3D printing market, selective laser cladding (SLM) technology is typically used to melt metal powder layer by layer to form the desired shape.

More than 1,000 SLM systems were sold in 2016, primarily using fiber lasers, disk/CO2 lasers, and femtosecond fiber lasers with power ranging from 30 watts to 1 kilowatt. Also, 3D printing is getting more precise, and fine structures can now be printed at micron resolutions.

During the next five years, the LiDAR market is expected to grow steadily. Drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics, military, and security are the major drivers of market growth.

BMW, Audi and other well-known car manufacturers have adopted laser lighting management systems. Laser lighting is part of the corporate market for automotive laser lighting, mainly in automotive headlights. Safety laser lighting is another important part of the product market, as it provides a warning sign for people riding at night.