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
What You Need to Know About Handheld Laser Welding is a practical, safety-focused guide for shop owners, welders, supervisors, students, and anyone considering this rapidly growing technology. It explains how handheld laser welding works, what equipment and controls are required, how to develop a repeatable welding process, and why training, ventilation, documentation, and laser safety … Read more
Modern motion controllers are amazing. In laser processing, advanced algorithms can smooth corners, reduce vibration, improve path following, synchronize laser firing, and help squeeze more performance out of a machine. Features such as input shaping, look-ahead, contour smoothing, and frequency-response-based tuning are real tools that can make a good machine much better [1][2][3][4]. But they … Read more