Schweissen und Schneiden

Dec. 1, 2005
The exhibition “Schweissen und Schneiden” (Welding and Cutting) takes place here every four years.

Essen, Germany - The exhibition “Schweissen und Schneiden” (Welding and Cutting) takes place here every four years. At this year’s event (September 12-17), there were 1052 exhibitors from 44 countries. Germany, represented by 479 exhibitors; Italy, with 133 exhibitors; and China, with 71, were the top three participating countries. More than 70,000 visitors from more than 90 different countries broke the 2001 attendance record.

A large number of companies presented laser and laser-related equipment for welding and cutting applications, verifying that lasers have found their place in the industrial community. We were especially impressed by the following.

An article in the September 13th issue of the Daily Fair Newspaper focused on new developments and applications of lasers for welding and cutting. This article mentioned diode-pumped Nd:YAG, diode, and disc lasers but didn’t mention fiber lasers. This was odd considering that applications featuring fiber lasers were demonstrated on the exhibition floor.

VPL (Vietz Pipeline Equipment GmbH, Hannover, Germany; www.vietz.de) showed a mobile fiber laser system developed for welding of pipelines. The beam from a 17kW Ytterbium fiber laser is fiber delivered with a special robot used to manipulate the focusing head. Pipes with wall thicknesses up to 11 mm can be welded with this system, which was developed in cooperation with BIAS (Bremen).

Daihen (Osaka, Japan), represented by its European representative OTC GmbH (Mönchengladbach; www.otc-daihen.de), showed a work cell where a robot equipped with a fiber laser performed a number of different welding and cutting jobs.

A wireless teach pendant that leaves the operator free to move through the work cell during the teach mode without the need to worry about the cable routing was shown by Comau (Torino, Italy; www.comau.com). The Swing laser system from this company is designed to make stitches while the robot is moving with a constant speed and the laser beam is swinging to reduce the time between welding of stitches to almost zero. - MHHVD

Sponsored Recommendations

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) electrode manufacturing

Jan. 31, 2025
Learn how an industry-leading Brain Computer Interface Electrode (BCI) manufacturer used precision laser micromachining to produce high-density neural microelectrode arrays.

Electro-Optic Sensor and System Performance Verification with Motion Systems

Jan. 31, 2025
To learn how to use motion control equipment for electro-optic sensor testing, click here to read our whitepaper!

How nanopositioning helped achieve fusion ignition

Jan. 31, 2025
In December 2022, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved fusion ignition. Learn how Aerotech nanopositioning contributed to this...

Nanometer Scale Industrial Automation for Optical Device Manufacturing

Jan. 31, 2025
In optical device manufacturing, choosing automation technologies at the R&D level that are also suitable for production environments is critical to bringing new devices to market...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Laser Focus World, create an account today!