Welcome to the January issue of AILU's e-newsletter.
I started Fimark Ltd, a laser marking subcontract company, in March 1997 and on 1st May that year listened to the new government on the radio. I remember thinking that Britain was going to change in ways that many people would not expect and hoped that some long term planning would be put in place that would benefit manufacturing. However, it was not to be. For example the Energy White Paper of 2003 made no provision for replacing aging nuclear power stations and no major improvements to transport infrastructure involving a network of high speed trains have been initiated; both of which would have brought tremendous benefit to UK manufacturing. But, as Sir John Rose of Rolls-Royce reminded us recently, the government’s view on manufacturing has been that "other less fortunate countries could get on with the business of making things."

One of the biggest events of 2010 will be the General Election and it amuses me that nuclear power is back on the agenda and that the Minister of Transport is pushing hard for high speed trains; there even seems to be renewed interest in manufacturing. Perhaps the social benefit and presumed wealth creation of moving money between financial institutions is at last starting to be questioned by the political classes.

Let us hope that whoever wins the election this year is quicker at learning and better at planning for the long term. As those involved in manufacturing we should all benefit from a longer term approach.

Happy New Year.

Charles Dean
E: info@fimark.com

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14 January 2010
Funding at Liverpool John Moores University to aid Laser Engineering
The Photonics in Engineering research group at Liverpool John Moores University has received funding from the Learning and Skills Council (North West) to form a “Train to Gain” cluster for Laser Engineering. The aim is for the cluster to identify its training needs and to then identify the resources required to meet these needs.

5 January 2010
Laserquote is proving a huge success
It’s now six months since the launch of the UK’s first, instant on-line laser cutting quotation service and its operator hasn’t looked back

5 January 2010
Bystronic UK have moved
From 4th January 2010 Bystronic UK Limited are operating from a new, larger technical centre

14 December 2009
Laser welding bonds craftmanship with technology for jewellers
The jewellery industry is renowned as being built upon detailed knowledge of precious metals and gems coupled with intricate manual skills and techniques which have been used for generations

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

Metal powder bed Additive Layer Manufacturing: the good, the bad and the ugly

There are a number of different names and acronyms for the many essentially identical powder bed Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) processes - ALM is used here. The first description of the process as presently operated is in US patent 4,247,508 issued in 1982 to Ross Housholder. However, it is only recently; with the development of suitable lasers and the widespread use of 3D CAD, together with computer and software developments, that the process has become economically and technically viable for metals. 

The ALM process should be seen as an additional manufacturing technology for integrating into existing strategies, not a replacement. When integrated with EDM, conventional machining, heat treating and hand finishing it can produce at a viable cost in particular situations (especially low volume/rapid turnaround) ‘castings’ type designs in certain high specification materials with properties similar to manufacture by forging. It can also produce some integrated structures not otherwise possible to fabricate without the aid of joining techniques. ALM offers huge potential for further technical development and cost reduction to broaden the economic applications base and fulfil its early promise.

Carl Brancher
Materials Solutions

IMAGE: A test structure consisting of a ‘staircase’ of steps at 10º increases from horizontal to vertical. Analysis shows that under-surface roughness increases as the inclination of the steps decreases; the under-surfaces of steps at less than 30 degrees would generally be regarded as unusable rough., except of course for the bottom step at zero degrees.

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

Light-emitting polymer pixels deposited by laserinduced forward transfer

Flatter screens and increasingly luminous and brilliant colour displays characterise the appearance of modern electronic devices. A next innovation step will be the development of flexible plastic displays which are no longer based on rigid carriers. Innovative laser-based micro-fabrication techniques in conjunction with organic semiconductor materials as well as functional polymers open up new possibilities for ‘plastic electronics’. One such technique is Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT).

LIFT uses a UV pulsed laser with a special UV-light absorbing polymer film which serves as a sacrificial release layer. In this way a thin solid material layer is forward transferred from a transparent donor substrate onto a receiver substrate. The process has the potential for accurately depositing thin films and printing successive layers of organic materials via a direct-write process.

Thus far, the applications for the photosensitive special polymers as the absorbing sacrificial release layer in the laser catapulting process are still in the early research and development stage. The emergence of flexible plastic monitors may still be a few years away but it is already clear that ultra-thin OLED and polymer displays will rival the current leaders in the digital display market.

Thomas Lippert, Matthias Nagel, Romain Fardel and Frank A. Nüesch
Materials Group of the Paul Scherrer Institut (T.L.), and the Laboratory for Functional Polymers, EMPA Materials Science & Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland

IMAGE: Magnified pixel structure of an LCD full colour display. Every three adjacent sub-pixels – red, green and blue – form a square pixel with a size of typically 0.3 to 0.2 mm.

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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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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