AIDO - the Technological Institute on Optics, Color and Imaging-(Valencia, Spain) hosted the First National Workshop on Laser Material Processing on November 3 and 4, 2004. The meeting continues a series of single-day encounters organized by AIDO in the previous years. Jose A. Ramos, head of AIDO’s laser department, says, “The main aim of the workshop is to diffuse laser technology among potential users in the field of material processing and to gather the people in our country working with this same objective.”
The presentations covered a variety of subjects ranging from advanced laser manufacturing, ceramics, ornamental rock processing, and micro-processing with femtosecond laser pulses to laser cladding, stainless steel soldering, and mold fabrication and refurbishing using lasers. Separate sessions considered general discussions about laser systems and devices, dealing with radiance propagation in biological media, broad-range zoom optics manufactured by Astigmat (Santa Clara, CA), fiber lasers and compensation of chromatic aberration in femtosecond lasers, laser beam characterization, and laser material processing control and monitoring.
The range of attendees also was quite diverse. The organizers contacted all the technological centers working with lasers in Spain as well as industry engineers and technicians and university researchers. The level of interest was high, and the sessions were followed by motivating questions and discussions.
AIDO is a nonprofit association of businessmen and institutions founded in Valencia in 1998. Its main purpose is to encourage research and technological development in industries within the fields of optics, image, color, design, and communication technologies to increase production quality, support export, and contribute to the industrial development of its geographical area. As Ramos says, “In Spain there are several laser centers and industries and universities interested in the laser processing subject, but there is not enough information flow and we don’t reach all the possible users. That is why AIDO belongs to REDLASER, the Spanish Network of Laser technology, founded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. The main objective of REDLASER is to help to introduce laser technology in industry, diffusion one of the ways to achieve this goal. This matches exactly the main objective of this workshop. Work is in progress, and AIDO will move forward in order to assure that this workshop takes place every year.”
For more information, contact Julio Serna, Optics Department, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, at [email protected].