Wilmington, MA - High-brightness direct-diode laser technology developer TeraDiode has signed a purchase and supply agreement with Panasonic Welding Systems (PWS; Osaka, Japan). Under the multiyear agreement, TeraDiode will supply PWS with the company's TeraBlade 4kW high-brightness direct-diode laser, which will power PWS’s novel robotic welding and cutting systems and be marketed as “Powered by TeraDiode” under the Panasonic brand. The agreement grants PWS exclusive marketing rights for remote welding applications in much of Asia.
Direct-diode lasers are leapfrogging incumbent fiber and disk lasers in affordability, reliability, and efficiency due to a well-established economy of scale of diode laser bar technology and TeraDiode's scalable wavelength beam combination technology. The TeraBlade platform is a 4kW product delivered with a 100µm output fiber, beam-parameter-product (BPP) of 3.8mm-mrad, and a wall plug efficiency of 40 percent. The laser has been incorporated in PWS’s LAPRISS remote welding system, which has been exhibited at tradeshows in Japan, China, and Germany since April 2014.
In the case of cutting use, the TeraBlade laser has cuts 19mm steel at 0.65m/min at a quality comparable to CO2 lasers.