St. Paul, MN—Quality Tool Inc., a metal-fabrication contract manufacturer, has added a turret punch/laser system, the Amada EMLK3610NT, with an energy-efficient servo-electric drive system. This equipment delivers high-speed, tight-tolerance punching and laser cutting in combination with forming capability and automated load/unload material handling systems.

East Hartford, CT - It’s one of those interesting industrial laser applications that, for one reason or other, never seem to make the market impact that it should. I’m talking about the use of high-energy lasers to remove paint from structural materials, such as aircraft fuselages.

Duisburg, Germany - ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks GmbH has developed a new production process that makes parts by joining together different materials with different thicknesses or coatings by laser welding.

Richmond, Calif. - Heliodyne Corporation has entered into an agreement whereby Alanod-Solar Inc. (Ennepetal, Germany) will become the sublicensee of Heliodyne’s rights to use a patent owned by Sandia Corporation for the laser welding of metal fins to metal tubes.

Oxford, MA - IPG Photonics Corporation, the world leader in high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers, has acquired the outstanding shares of privately held, Birmingham, Alabama-based Photonics Innovations Inc. (PII), a maker of active and passive laser materials and tunable lasers for scientific, biomedical, technological, and eye-safe range-finding applications.

Coherent Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) (Nasdaq: COHR) has secured multiple orders totaling in excess of $20M from crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers for laser-based process tools.

An electronics manufacturer previously experienced several hundred thousand dollars a year in losses when incorrect parts were added to, and/or the wrong operations were performed, on assemblies. The difficulty in tracking assemblies made it necessary to keep more than the desired amount of work-in-process (WIP) inventory. And, a limited amount of space on some of the assemblies made marking the parts a challenge. Claire Lasers developed an application that uses a laser to apply a 2D Data Matrix code to each part.

A laser cutting system helps Lindsay Corporation meet growing demand in core irrigation systems business, while expanding into traffic control products and contract manufacturing

For the last few years, the use of hot stamping and Press-Hardened Steels (PHS) for the body-in-white (BIW) structure has been booming. PHS (commonly based on boron steels) successfully produces Ultra High Strength Steel with easy formability by hot stamping and quenching effect during cooling in the press. Due to crash regulations and weight reduction strengthening, this trend will be seen in many new vehicles produced worldwide in the coming years.

Buffalo, NY--Eastman Machine Company, a manufacturer of cutting machines, automated cutting systems, material handling equipment, and software solutions, has released its latest generation laser cutting system applicable to customers in the aerospace, automotive, composite, and industrial fabrics industries.

State College, PA--The ASM International's Emerging Technologies Awareness Committee (ETAC) and Joining Critical Technologies Sector (JCTS) have scheduled the Materials Science & Technology 2010 Conference & Exhibition (MS&T ‘10), for October 17-21, in Houston, Texas.

Jena, Germany – Jenoptik Automatisierungstechnik GmbH announces a cooperation agreement with Frimo Viersen GmbH a company it has worked with since 2007. Frimo Viersen is the technology center for punching and flexible cutting within the Frimo Group, a worldwide systems provider of tool and plant technologies for processing plastics, primarily in the automotive industry.

East Hartford, CT--The organizers of the Symposium for Advanced Laser Applications (SALA), the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology Inc. (CCAT) are pleased to announce the establishment of the CCAT Innovation Award for Laser Applications in Manufacturing Operations.

Stuttgart, Germany--A new visitor service has been added to the event line-up at LASYS 2010 with "Solution Center - meet the experts": an independent, established advisory service for all kinds of production problems. This Solution Center is the brainchild of the experts on the LASYS advisory council.

Nashua, NH - A meeting of the Northeast Chapter of the Laser Institute of America (LIA) was held in Nashua, NH on Wednesday 13 January 2010. More than 75 attendees registered, mostly from New England, but also from as far away as California.

Southampton, UK – The South East Photonics Network (SEPNET) welcomes the UK Government’s announcement of a state of the art manufacturing research center at the University of Southampton with a focus on photonics.

Sheffield, UK--MTL Group Ltd., a global supplier of processed armor steel, has been awarded TL approval from the German Federal Arm. TL approval is a pre-requirement for any company wanting to supply components to the BWB.

Chicopee, MA--PRIMA North America has received ISO 9001:2008 certification for the Champlin, MN, and Chicopee, MA, facilities, and all three of PRIMA North America’s businesses--Laserdyne Systems, Convergent Lasers, and Prima Systems.