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LIA TODAY July Aug15 Lowres THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE LASER INSTITUTE OF AMERICA Volume: 2123 No: 14 JUL/AUGJAN/FEB 20132015 LIATODAY THE LASER’S FOUNDING FATHER REMEMBERING CHARLES H. ILSC 2013: EXPERIENCE THE TOWNES WORLD’S LEADING LASER PG 6 SAFETY CONFERENCE PG 6 LASER CUTTING OF CFRP USING A 30 KW FIBER LASER PG 10 EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF MEDICAL LASER APPLICATIONS IN THE U.S. PG 8 DIGITAL LASER DYEING THE EFFECT OF CO2 LASER IRRADIATION ON SURFACE & DYEING PROPERTIES OF WOOL MEET THE NEW PRESIDENT AND FOR TEXTILE DESIGN BOARD OF DIRECTORS Focus:FOCUS: PG 12 PG 12 Medical LASERSApplications IN Photo of Charles Townes with a ruby maser amplifier MANUFACTURING courtesy of Bell Labs Laser Institute of America,America isthe the international 13501 society Ingenuity dedicated Drive, Suite 128 tointernational fostering lasers, society laser dedicated applications to and Orlando,laser safety FL 32826 worldwide.fostering lasers, laser applications Phone: +1.407.380.1553 and laser safety worldwide. www.lia.org LIATODAY FOCUS: LASERS IN MANUFACTURING JULY/AUGUST 2015 www.lia.org 1.800.34.LASER 3 LIA TODAY is published bimonthly to educate and inform laser professionals in laser safety and new trends related to laser technology. LIA members IN THIS ISSUE: receive a free subscription to LIA TODAY and the Journal of Laser Applications® in addition to discounts on all LIA products and services. FEATURES LIATODAY The editors of LIA TODAY welcome input from THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE The Laser’s Founding Father readers. Please submit news-related releases, Remembering Charles H. Townes 6 LASER INSTITUTE OF AMERICA articles of general interest and letters to the editor. Laser Cutting of CFRP Using a 30 kW Mail us at LIA TODAY, 13501 Ingenuity Drive, Suite Fiber Laser 10 128, Orlando, FL 32826, fax +1.407.380.5588, or send material by email to [email protected]. Digital Laser Dyeing The Effect of CO2 Laser Irradiation on Surface & Dyeing Properties of Wool for Textile Design 12 ICALEO 2015 16 2015 LIA OFFICERS CALENDAR OF EVENTS President – Robert Thomas Laser Safety Officer Training DEPARTMENTS USAF Research Laboratory Dec. 1-3, 2015 Orlando, FL President-Elect – Lin Li Calendar of Events 4 The University of Manchester Laser Safety Officer with Hazard Analysis* President’s Message 5 Past President – Yongfeng Lu Sept. 21-25, 2015 Chicago, IL Executive Director’s Message 5 University of Nebraska – Lincoln Oct. 19-23, 2015 Atlanta, GA Corporate Member Profile 18 Secretary – Paul Denney Nov. 2-6, 2015 Scottsdale, AZ International Year of Light 19 Lincoln Electric *Certified Laser Safety Officer exam offered after the course. Member Innovations 20 Treasurer – Stephen Capp Members in Motion 20 Laserage Technology Corporation Industrial Laser Safety Officer Training ASC Z136 Update 22 Nov. 18-19, 2015 Novi, MI BLS Update 23 EDITORIAL STAFF Medical Laser Safety Officer Training* OSHA Update 24 Editor-in-Chief – Peter Baker Sept. 19-20, 2015 Chicago, IL JLA Editor’s Pick 25 Managing Editor – Michelle Williams Oct. 17-18, 2015 Atlanta, GA LIA Announces 26 Copy Editor – Barbara Sams Nov. 7-8, 2015 Scottsdale, AZ New Corporate Members 26 Communications Director – Geoff Giordano *Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer exam offered after the course. International Congress on Applications of Lasers & ADVERTISERS BUSINESS STAFF Electro-Optics (ICALEO®) Andrews Glass Company 17 Publisher – Jim Naugle Oct. 18-22, 2015 Atlanta, GA ANSI Z136.1 22 Advertising Sales – Andrew Morrison ® ANSI Z136.2 21 Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM ) Workshop 8 If you are interested in advertising space Mar. 2-3, 2016 Orlando, FL ANSI Z136.9 in this newsletter or a subscription, call Board of Laser Safety 23 +1.407.380.1553/1.800.34.LASER or email Lasers for Manufacturing Summit ICALEO 2015 17 [email protected]. Apr. 25, 2016 Atlanta, GA IPG Photonics Corporation 28 Kentek Corporation 3 Lasers for Manufacturing Event® (LME®) LAM 2016 9 ABOUTLIA Apr. 26-27, 2016 Atlanta, GA Laservision USA 15 Laser Institute of America (LIA) is the professional society for laser applications and safety. Our mission is to foster lasers, laser LIA’s EVALUATOR 24 applications and laser safety worldwide. Visit www.lia.org for all course and event listings. LIA’s In-house Training 25 We believe in the importance of sharing new ideas about lasers. In fact, laser pioneers such as Dr. Arthur Schawlow and Dr. LIA’s Laser Safety Officer Theodore H. Maiman were among LIA’s original founders who set Online Training 14 the stage for our enduring mission to promote laser applications and their safe use through education, training and symposia. LME 2016 2 LIA was formed in 1968 by people who represented the heart of the profession – a group of academic scientists, developers and PhotoMachining, Inc. 19 engineers who were truly passionate about taking an emerging new laser technology and turning it into a viable industry. FOLLOW US! PHOTONICS MEDIA 21 Whether you are new to the world of lasers or an experienced laser TRUMPF, INC. 27 professional, LIA is for you. We offer a wide array of products, services, education and events to enhance your laser knowledge and expertise. As an individual or corporate member, you will qualify for significant discounts on LIA materials, training courses and the industry’s most popular LIA conferences and workshops. Visit www.lia.org/subscriptions to sign up for our We invite you to become part of the LIA experience – cultivating innovation, ingenuity and inspiration. social media outlets. 4 LIATODAY FOCUS: LASERS IN MANUFACTURING JULY/AUGUST 2015 President’s Executive Message Director’s Message At the end of July, we celebrated the 100th birthday of I am writing this just as we Charles H. Townes, honored with a Nobel Prize just return from Laser World of over 50 years ago for contributions to fundamental Photonics in Munich, an work in quantum electronics, leading to the excellent event as expected development of the maser and laser. Dr. Townes was from our friends at Messe often quoted as saying about these inventions “It was Munich International. strange, in a way, because there were no ideas involved in the laser that weren’t already known by somebody The show continues to expand, 25 years before lasers were discovered. The ideas particularly in the area of were all there; just, nobody put it together.” As we lasers in manufacturing. The celebrate Townes’ 100th birthday, we reflect on this forum on International Laser observation and ask ourselves: “what other ideas are Applications covered the field, out there for us to put together in an equally profound way (and not have the and there were interesting demonstrations at many process require 25 years!)?” of the stands. All indications are that our industry is healthy and growing. This observation is reflected in the description of Townes by Freeman Dyson, who described Townes as a “fox” in the context of The Hedgehog And The Now it is time for our European friends to take some Fox essay in which the hedgehog views the world from the perspective of a vacation and enjoy the unusually warm weather. I wish single defining idea or “one big thing,” while the fox draws on a variety of all of our members and readers a safe and pleasant experiences and perspectives. No doubt, the many ideas that resulted in the summer. laser, were brought together through experience in a variety of physics and engineering projects during undergraduate, graduate and research careers. As See you at ICALEO Oct. 18-22, 2015, in Atlanta, a community, it is critical that we foster the free exchange of these ideas and Georgia. highlight significant advances. The foxes among us will connect the dots in order to advance the field of laser applications technology. The Laser Institute of America has long been an organization of professionals focused on the innovative application of laser technologies. As such, it is important that we exercise the “inner fox” in all of us. Our LIA Journal— Journal of Laser Applications® (JLA), and forums such as the International Peter Baker, Executive Director Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics (ICALEO®), the Lasers Laser Institute of America for Manufacturing Event® (LME®) and Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM®) Workshop have provided us access to those ideas that “are just there” and awaiting your insight for the next big breakthrough. I hope that you will join us, and become the next “Laser Fox” that the world celebrates. Happy Birthday, Dr. Townes! Robert Thomas, President Laser Institute of America www.lia.org 1.800.34.LASER 5 FEATURED ARTICLE The Laser’s Founding Father Remembering Charles H. Townes BY GEOFF GIORDANO In his 1999 book How the Laser Happened, the late Charles Hard Townes explained that, “Once invented, lasers found a myriad of uses” and noted that they had advanced to the point that “the smallest lasers are so tiny one cannot see them without a microscope.” A far cry from the heady days of the 1950s. Imagine Townes conceiving and building a maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) at Columbia University before the heated race to pursue a patent for an optical maser — the laser. Imagine the fevered discussion in the scientific community as Townes and Arthur Schawlow at Bell Labs beat Gordon Gould and Technical Research Group to that first laser patent — two months before Theodore Maiman built his ruby laser for Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, CA, in 1960. Townes — who famously conceived the idea for the laser while sitting on a park bench in Washington, DC in 1951 — worked until his 99th year, maintaining an office at the physics department of the University of California, Berkeley. The campus honored him with a birthday celebration July 28, 2014; he passed away in January 2015.
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