Bowing to the inevitability of the devolution of print journalism, Industrial Laser Solutions (ILS) enters 2021 as a section in Laser Focus World (LFW), rather than as a freestanding print publication. It is a matter of changes in the world of digital publishing called social communication. This was aided in 2020 by the fallout from the spread of the coronavirus pandemic whereby most of us in publishing, judged to be nonessential, have been working remotely.
If you have been a subscriber to ILS, you will now receive a digital copy of LFW and you will find us, every month, occupying space in that publication’s editorial pages. This month, we kick off with two timely nontechnical features: one on the rise of China, the world’s largest industrial laser market, to global prominence, contributed by Dr. Bo Gu, a well-known China laser authority and Editorial Advisor to ILS. The second is on a complementary theme—pursuing a resiliency strategy in a changing global marketplace, which is written by a new-to-ILS author, Dr. Irene Petrick from Intel Corporation.
Looking ahead in 2021, ILS will have a powerful lineup of contributed features on a variety of subjects related to advances in the world of industrial laser material processing technology. If you are new to ILS, you’ll see what you have missed in our 35 years of publishing.
A major change for ILS is our return to monthly publication and, more significantly, an expansion in our readership as we add tens of thousands of new readers from the global manufacturing sector. We welcome you to our world—industrial laser processing.
The ILS website will remain, where you’ll see expanded news and more applications editorial. And yes, for our legions of followers, more of me ([email protected]).
David Belforte | Contributing Editor
David Belforte (1932-2023) was an internationally recognized authority on industrial laser materials processing and had been actively involved in this technology for more than 50 years. His consulting business, Belforte Associates, served clients interested in advanced manufacturing applications. David held degrees in Chemistry and Production Technology from Northeastern University (Boston, MA). As a researcher, he conducted basic studies in material synthesis for high-temperature applications and held increasingly important positions with companies involved with high-technology materials processing. He co-founded a company that introduced several firsts in advanced welding technology and equipment. David's career in lasers started with the commercialization of the first industrial solid-state laser and a compact CO2 laser for sheet-metal cutting. For several years, he led the development of very high power CO2 lasers for welding and surface treating applications. In addition to consulting, David was the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Laser Solutions magazine (1986-2022) and contributed to other laser publications, including Laser Focus World. He retired from Laser Focus World in late June 2022.