Outline
As the first chapter after the introductory pages to the background of the website, insight into the scope of the topics will be here on the basis of an outline, which explains the flexibility of the processing methods of materials when the tool laser beam is selected.
"Industrial Materials Processing Using Laser Beams" is a field within the common Laser Technology focusing on Production Engineering. It does neither include the theory of laser physics nor the variety of other applications of lasers, such as optical measurement technology or communication technology. It is part of the scientific field of Industrial Engineering and therefore might also be called "Laser Production Engineering".
With the term “basics” I refer to the theoretical background necessary to understand the methods of processing using the “tool laser beam" that are not yet part of the production standard and that are explored in order to set new limits for possible new applications.
At the core of "Material Processing using Laser Beams" consists of three areas that are already implied in the term:
- Material
- Processing
- Laser Beams
In addition, we are dealing with
- Interaction
I will begin by explaining the characteristics of the laser beam and how to choose and set (transform) a laser beam in a way that it suits a set task. The knowledge of the qualities of laser beams is still quite rare compared to the knowledge of material – this holds both for the field of science as well as for the field of engineering.
The second area consists of the qualities of material (matter), as far as limits in possibilities of processing by using a laser beam can be derived from qualities of the material. The labels 'Material' and 'Substance' or 'Matter' are used side by side equivalent in scientific and technical language. In the following, 'Material' is selected.
A laser beam is a non-material tool and affects a given material in a special way (compared to conventional production technologies) without any mechanical contact. It mainly affects material through its optical qualities, rather than chemically and almost without any mechanical contact. Consequently, we have to consider the interaction between a beam and a material as a special area in order to understand processing using laser beams.
The following paragraph about processing will discuss the characteristics of machines or facilities for the optical tool, the laser beam, and its control possibilities; the optical tool 'laser beam' is only used in machines (machine tools).