Optoelectronics
Happy Christmas from JK Lasers!
To celebrate Christmas, JK Lasers, has cut a festive tree in 1mm brass with decorative 1mm aluminium snowflakes and 1.5mm red anodised aluminium baubles, using a 1kW fiber laser and Nitrogen assist gas. Aluminium and brass are highly reflective materials that can be difficult to process using lasers. Light can be reflected back onto the laser and optics, potentially causing damage.
UnliJK Lasers’ Christmas message is the last in a series of six laser processed messages, designed to celebrate special events throughout the year. Each features a different laser, processing technique or material.
For the Chinese New Year an intricate dragon was cut out of stainless steel, for Easter a decorative egg was cut out of mild steel and to celebrate Independence Day, red and blue anodised aluminium was ablated to reveal the American flag. A Diwali message was percussion drilled in stainless steel with sparklers lit using a galvanometer scanning head, while Halloween was marked with a stainless steel pumpkin, ‘carved’ using a height sensing head.
Mark Greenwood, managing director of JK Lasers, said: “JK Lasers is a global company whose products are used in many industries for a wide range of applications. Our 2012 series of celebratory messages have been a fun yet highly effective way of demonstrating these capabilities to customers around the world.”