Over the weeks before Christmas I was busy thanking customers for the orders we received in 2009 (might not be as many bottles with the thank you as last year) and having just looked at the Sales Ranking Report from our invoicing system our sales to the customer who was top in 2008 was 42% down and reduced to second place ranking in 2009.

Cirrus as a company increased marketing over 2008 levels, used 2 exhibitions to increase our customer base and spent hard cash on improving our internet image. Nevertheless, our overall performance in 2009 was still about 25% down on 2008. On a personal note I managed to pay-off our property mortgage and business loans 15 months ago, and not having to pay rent was the difference between a loss and a small profit.

The annual JSG meeting was held on 28th October 2009 at Amada UK in Kidderminster and a cracking good time was had by all. So good that I missed half of my lunch break talking to JSG members and then having Mike Green shooing me back into the meeting room to get the afternoon session underway!

During the meeting we circulated a survey to delegates as to how they view the future now that the UK economy is supposed to grow in 2010: 50% of those present felt that the economic situation in the UK is improving, but with turnover levels down by 5 - 10%; the other 50% thought that the situation was as bad now as it was 12 months ago, with turnover levels down 20% or more. None of those questioned thought that the recession was over. No surprises there then!

Finally, may I wish all members of AILU good health and prosperity and lets hope that UK PLC gets back on it’s feet this year despite the efforts of bankers and politicians.

Dave Connaway
E: dc@cirrus-laser.co.uk

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14 December 2009
Beam Delivery Solutions For Fiber Lasers Dominate Discussions At Fabtech 2009
Receiving some 25,000 visitors and featuring 1,083 exhibitors, Fabtech 2009 (November 15-18, 2009) played host to a reemerging global manufacturing industry - as evidenced by the serious buyers packing the exhibit halls of McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois

9 December 2009
Coherent Introduces Smallest 1 kW CO2 Laser Available
A new sealed 1 kW CO2 laser from Coherent Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) (Nasdaq: COHR) is the most compact product available at this power level

7 December 2009
Micro Machining Process (MMP) enables high-quality surface finishing accuracy of Direct Metal Laser Sintered parts
Laser sintering systems manufacturer EOS announced an exclusive joint venture with Swiss-based BESTinCLASS, a company that has developed the micro-machining process (MMP)

3 December 2009
Rofin's welding solutions go down to the wire
In September 2006, Rofin-Baasel UK started supplying laser welding wire consumables to customers within the United Kingdom and Ireland who use the company’s lasers for injection mould tool repair, jewellery manufacturing and spectacle frame repair

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The articles below are from the Autumn 2009 Issue of the AILU Magazine

Fibre laser material processing of aerospace composites

Carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites have attracted considerable interest from a number of different industrial sectors but primary from the aerospace sector. Aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus see the potential benefits of using CFRP composites over metals. Their low density, high strength and high stiffness to weight ratio make them a suitable candidate for many aerospace applications.

To cut CFRP aerospace companies have been investing in water jet or mechanically machining CFRP, however, the laser cutting of CFRP composites has yet to be exploited  by the aerospace industry. As well as the cutting of CFRP composites there has been an increased interest in the aerospace industry in adhesive joining technology. A possibly new and novel application for lasers is a micromachining application of micro-texturing, as an alternative to the traditional abrasive disk for roughening the composite surface prior to applying the adhesive.

This investigation has shown potential applications for the new generation of fibre lasers in both a macro-application of laser cutting and a micro-application of laser surface texturing for adhesive bonding of aerospace structures. Surface texturing of composites is a viable replacement to mechanical abrading giving better control over the final structured surface.  This ability to machine on a fine scale could give fibre lasers a new role in the aerospace industry, for laser milling of fine structures in CFRP. 

Paul French, Mo Naeem, John Clowes and Martin Sharp
Liverpool John Moores University, GSI Group, & Fianium Ltd

IMAGE: 'Tombstone' profile 15 mm x 10 mm, a standard shape used for assessing cut quality.

AILU members can log in to the AILU web site and download this article free of charge. Otherwise click here to order a copy’

Laser treatment for improved impact wear resistance

Wear of components costs industry millions of pounds every year and there any many methods employed to minimise it. Traditional methods often aim to increase the hardness of the surface through heat treatment or through the use of coatings or inserts. A common heat treatment process is induction hardening and this gives a homogenous microstructure with good impact wear resistance, but it can be slow and difficult to tailor the material properties when used to process large and complex components, such as cylinder heads. Using an insert or a coating allows tailored materials so different engine variants can have different properties, such as self lubrication. These processes can be comparatively expensive and increase the complexity by adding components and, or manufacturing processes. An alternative is laser hardening and this paper examines hardening of cast iron, as used in automotive engines.

From the results of the impact testing it appears that having a very hard surface reduces wear and that the melted layer (ledeburite) is more wear resistant than martensite, which is too brittle to fully withstand pure impact. Also the lubricating effect of the graphite flakes does
not come into effect in the case of pure impact wear resistance.

Helen Taylor (Consultant), Tom Slatter and Roger Lewis (University of Sheffield)

IMAGE: Section of wear scar, laser treated at 2mm/s and after 72000 impacts

AILU members can log in to the AILU web site and download this article free of charge. Otherwise click here to order a copy’

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19 January 2010
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies East Midlands
Industrialists are invited to an open day at the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies East Midlands Centre, University of Nottingham.

16 March 2010
The Route to Mass Adoption of Additive Manufacture in Metal Component Fabrication
Preliminary Announcement This AILU Event addressing the subject of Additive Layer Manufacturing will address major advances of applications in metal component fabrication and developments in materials and powders

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