Laser technology and its industrial applications

Customer

Medium and large manufacturing companies

Demand

To understand LASER technologies and their applications in the panorama of material processing with particular reference to medium and high power lasers in order to define potential application outlets and possible evolutions of the technology.

Services

State of the art and Search for suppliers/skills technology scouting

Solution

The scouting was focused on the search for technological solutions and commercial or research activities related to the processing of materials in order to better define the state of the art of laser solutions.

The research was based on sources found both via the web (sector magazines, popular articles, promotional videos, company websites) and on specialized databases in the scientific (sector scientific articles) and patent fields.

The analysis of the results was refined in several stages through direct comparison with the customer in order to focus the research on the most useful aspects for the same, including the type of laser of interest (e.g. type of source, power, etc. .) and specific application (e.g. cutting, marking, welding, etc.).

Parallel to the definition of the technological scenario, the main world companies active in the supply of machinery and/or solutions for the laser processing of materials have been researched, identifying the most consolidated and most recent companies and characterized by a greater degree of innovation.

Description

LASER technologies, now diffused in a wide variety of sectors and applications, from electronics to chemistry or to the surface treatment of components, represent a versatile tool for applications in the field of material processing. This feature has been exploited over the years for an ever increasing number of applications, including, for example:

Laser machining (e.g. cutting, drilling, cleaning)
Laser surface modification (e.s alloying, cladding)
Laser marking
Laser cladding
Laser sintering / melting

Focused on the need to better understand the existing landscape, the scouting activity was divided into the following parts:

Definition of the fundamental technological aspects to fully understand the Laser solutions and applications (e.g. sources, types of lasers, interactions with materials etc.)
Mapping and in-depth analysis of existing applications, with particular reference to the solutions of interest for the industrial areas identified
Comparison of existing technologies in relation to the specific case of customer interest
Analysis of the main suppliers of interest for LASER technology applications in the field of interest of the client company

The details of the information collected, the types of suppliers sought and the structure of the final presentation report were structured on the needs and interests of the client company, through multiple stages of comparison and discussion of the research results.