Laser manufacturing in SMEs

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Laser technology has conquered more and more production areas and although investment costs are going down and laser systems are becoming more powerful, profitability is not automatically guaranteed as it requires the highest possible utilization of a laser beam’s potential during the processing phase. Correspondingly optimized production processes and facilities do exist, however, only for standard processing and industrial key accounts. Within the framework of the project ‘Laser Fertigungstechnik’ (laser production technology) it has been proven that a lot of potential is being left untapped in these kinds of production processes especially with regard to systems SME are able to use and which have not been specifically adapted. Studies on the transfer of high-speed processes with laser technology in production areas of regional SME have indicated an optimization potential by a factor of (up to) 30 in comparison to the current speed. Via a follow-up project a vast part of the untapped potential of laser systems should be made available for the production process in regional SME. Such companies usually do not benefit from current developments as the corresponding technology has not been tailored to their requirements. A suitable model adaptation shall prove that this kind of adaptation is possible, that advanced technologies and SME are compatible and ‘last but not least’ that it is possible to profitably use lasers in production areas. To make this endeavour a success, a specialist machine constructor and an SME-technology user will join the current project team to jointly work on a suitable implementation of the high-speed technology. Furthermore, additional adaptations are planned and interested companies are invited to collaborate in order to give a new impetus to a further distribution of laser usage within the programme region and to establish structures for the use of advanced technologies.

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