NEWS 16 February 2021

Continuous evolution of 60-year-old laser technology

Sixty years after its inception, laser technology is still steadily evolving and a large number of industrial applications have been developed over this period. In recent years, institutes and manufacturers...

Sixty years after its inception, laser technology is still steadily evolving and a large number of industrial applications have been developed over this period. In recent years, institutes and manufacturers have presented a tsunami of innovations around this powerful source of light, regarding knowhow, technology and practices. For laser-based materials processing, the continuous evolution towards shorter wavelengths stands out, as opening up a wide ‘supply’ of dedicated wavelengths fitting major contemporary practical purposes. Furthermore, laser quality has increased, efficiency has surpassed 50% and performance has improved spectacularly even with a decreasing laser footprint, while functionality expanded considerably in micro- as well as macro-applications. This Mikroniek article presents an overview.

References

Order of frictions and stiffnesses…

For lumped systems consisting of different frictions and stiffnesses, there has been confusion in literature about hysteresis curves and virtual play for many decades.

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Make it clean

In mid-April, the second edition of the Manufacturing Technology Conference and the fifth edition of the Clean Event were held together, for the first time, at the Koningshof in Veldhoven (NL).

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Bringing particles to light

Particle contamination monitoring and cleanliness control are fundamental to micromanufacturing processes across diverse industries to achieve cost-effective production of high-quality and reliable microscale devices and components.

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