What CNC machines—and an established part of the automation industry I should have paid more attention to—taught me about building more flexible machines I have spent much of my career programming machines. Some have been conventional PLC-controlled machines built around sequential operations. Others have been CNC-style systems where the machine programming and the part programming … Read more
The laser source may be the heart of the system, but beam delivery, motion, controls, safety, process knowledge, and maintainability determine whether the machine actually succeeds. Fiber lasers have changed industrial manufacturing. They are compact, efficient, reliable, and increasingly available in power levels and configurations that would have been difficult to imagine just a few … Read more
Automation Notes What If We Standardized the Control System Before Building the Next Laser Machine? The machine should be custom. The control foundation does not always have to be. One thing that has bothered me for years in custom machine building is how often we solve the same control problems over and over again. A … Read more
When we buy a new laser cutting or welding system, most of the discussion is understandably about what the machine can do today. How fast will it cut or weld? What tolerances can it hold? What materials can it process? How much production can we get through it? But there is another question that may … Read more
August 27, 2026 Is Laser Welding Ready for the Mainstream? MWL Laser Manufacturing Weekly — Fifth Edition August 27, 2026 This week, we look at a question I think we’re going to hear more often: Is laser welding finally ready to move deeper into mainstream U.S. fabrication? We also look at a laser cutter that … Read more
One subsystem that has caused me more commissioning trouble than people might expect is the cutting gas system.One lesson I learned building laser cutting machines is that saying:“I need 300 psi nitrogen.”doesn’t really define the requirement.What you actually need to know is:“I need this pressure while flowing this much gas.”Laser cutting—especially high-pressure nitrogen cutting—can require … Read more
Why higher programmed speed does not always mean more good parts per hour By William Kane | Manufacturing with Light (MWL) Eventually, almost every successful production machine gets the same request: “We need more parts per hour.” With a laser cutting machine, the first reaction is often obvious: increase the feed rate. If the process … Read more
A look at four developments in laser manufacturing that caught my attention this week — from precision motion for medical-device manufacturing to very-high-power cutting, semiconductor processing, and an interesting new approach to machining sapphire. Precision Motion Targets Medical Tube Laser Cutting Aerotech’s new LaserTurn280 motion platform is designed for cylindrical laser processing applications such as … Read more
By William Kane | Manufacturing with Light (MWL) When people start discussing a new laser cutting system, the conversation usually starts with the laser. How much power do we need? Fiber or ultrafast? What wavelength? What spot size? What material thickness? Those are important questions and should be worked out in an applications lab before … Read more
