To offer increased cutting performance, a 5kW diffusion cooled CO2 slab laser with a high energy density to provide improved process stability and high quality at high cutting speeds.

In response to customer's needs for increased cutting performances, Rofin introduces the DC 050. With an average output power of 5,000 Watts this diffusion cooled CO2 Slab laser provides an ideal laser source for industrial plate and sheet cutting applications. 'We are glad to enlarge our CO2 product range with this new model,' said Thorsten Frauenpreiss, managing director of Rofin-Sinar Laser.

'The newest model of the mature DC series provides new possibilities for all cutting applications - especially for thick plate applications where the high-performance laser proves its quality.' Due to the excellent beam quality of the laser and its increased output power, high-pressure cutting with long focal lengths is now available in the 5kW power range, too.

Additionally, the high energy density provides improved process stability at high cutting speeds, a precondition for reliable cutting data and quality.

Thanks to the patented design, the low-maintenance Rofin CO2 slab lasers are easy to service.

Having no gas circulation, the laser does not need any turbines.

The gas bottle that is required for the gas exchange every 72h, is positioned conveniently within the laser head, so that an external gas supply is not necessary.

The laser beam that is produced in the resonator is uncoupled by a diamond window without any losses of power or beam quality.

The internal water-cooled mirrors, are robust and non-wearing reflective optics.

With its excellent beam quality of K0.9 this laser is at all power levels a perfect tool for manifold cutting and welding tasks.

* Live-Demonstration of Ultra Large Scale Remote Welding - the DC 050 showed its outstanding qualities as a welding laser together with the remote welding system (RWS).

In a live welding demonstration of vehicle rear seats, 49 welded joints are created within 12s.

The RWS is a high speed welding system, which is able to make multiple spot welds in an arbitrary pattern over a very large working area in a short time.

The variety of possible welds is nearly limitless, spots, circles, lines, waves or any other form.

Thanks to easy programming and beam forming through the mirror and scanner all applications can be set up quickly.

With a RWS a very wide working area is possible, because the laser beam is expanded by a telescope and focussed by an optic on the work piece.

Using a focal length of up to 2.0m gives a working area of 2900 x 1800 x 1000mm.

With a positioning speed of 400m/min between the welding points, known as 'rapid move', the non- productive time is reduced to a minimum.

This provides the shortest possible cycle times.

With about 20 million welding cycles for more than 300km of weld length, without the exchange of typical wear parts, the system also sets a benchmark for availability and process optimization.

The laser is positioned above the working area so that, compared to a conventional manufacturing method like, e g, resistance spot welding, a compact system with the smallest possible footprint results.

* Patented CO2 laser technique for remote welding - the Remote Welding System was shown at the euroblech fair in combination with a diffusion- cooled Rofin DC 050 with a average output power of 5kW.

This CO2 laser belongs to the patented Rofin DC series.

The excellent beam quality of K0.9 makes the use of remote welding cost-effective.

As all DC lasers have a perfect basic specification for high speed welding with large focal lengths, they are the ideal tool for this application.

When quick welding for complex formed work pieces is required, the Scanner Welding System (SWS) with a robot is the perfect solution.

At the EuroBLECH, Rofin will present this mirror deflection system in combination with a 6-axis articulated robot.

The mirrors offer extremely quick positioning (<50ms) of the laser beam within the considerably extended working area of about 200 x 240 x 80mm.

In comparison with the already industrially used RWS with its CO2 laser, in the SWS all three scanner axes are coupled with those of the robot so that the combined system has nine accessible axes.

Like in the Remote Welding System, weld geometry can be programmed freely, which means it can be adjusted specifically to the requirements of the component.

Furthermore, the sophisticated software has features that calculate the track inaccuracies of the robot so that the weld path is accurate to <0.1mm.

The resulting reduction of non-productive time allows an increase in laser on time from typically 30% to over 80%.

* Perfect features for scanner welding - the Rofin Disc Laser To be able to follow the movements of the robot, a flexible beam guide through fiber optics is needed.

At the EuroBLECH the SWS was presented in combination with a diode- pumped disc laser.

The emitted laser light of this laser can be coupled with virtually no power loss into fibre optics of only 200 micron core diameter.

Compared to rod lasers this new solid state laser generation is distinguished by its nearly doubled efficiency and its improved beam quality of 8mm x mrad.

Because of this beam quality the working distance to the work piece can be increased to up to 400mm with the SWS.

Thanks to this extended distance, the danger of contamination of the optics can be significantly reduced, and the associated greater energy density leads to higher process stability.

At the EuroBLECH Rofin also presented the new DL-R series as cost-effective and compact tools especially for laser hardening and surface treatment.

Based on the mature DL series, these lasers have a wavelength of 940 to 980nm and rectangular beam geometry made for the hardening process.

Thanks to the homogenized beam profile and its resulting uniform energy distribution, large hardening depths are possible without initial melting.

The geometry of the rectangular focus spot is adaptable to match the specific needs of the customer's application.

The DL-R series was designed with Stack Management as a basic feature to ensure laser up-time.

Currently, four laser variations from 900 to 3,600W are available.

An online performance test and the observation of all important parameters provide highest availability - the pointing laser with green wavelength offers a better visibility.

The compact and low maintenance diode lasers have an overall efficiency of 30% and meet typical diode lifetimes far in access of 10,000 hours.

* Laser marking - the ideal tool for small order quantities - the ideal tool for small order quantities, different materials and forms: portable, air-cooled and almost maintenance- free.

The EasyMark can be programmed by effective LaserCAD-Software from any computer and operates from a common mains power supply.

With a wavelength 1064 nm the machine can mark metal and plastics precisely.

Optional program-controlled axes (a linear Z-axis and an axis of rotation with ring admission) can be integrated easily.

After a short period of instruction, the integrated focusing and positioning aids make for easy handling of the machine.