A laser welding apparatus includes a laser medium, an excitation light source and a control unit. The control unit supplies drive power to the excitation light source to inject excitation energy to the laser medium. The control unit supplies preliminary excitation power, which is smaller than pulsed drive power, to the excitation light source over a preliminary supply time, which is longer than a pulse width of the drive power before welding the first weld to be welded. After the preliminary supply time elapses and then an interval, the pulsed drive power is supplied to the excitation light source to weld the first weld.

A laser processing device includes an irradiation unit configured to irradiate an object with laser light, an image capturing part configured to capture an image of the object with light having transparency to the object, a display unit configured to display information, and a control unit configured to control at least the irradiation unit, the image capturing part, and the display unit. The control unit performs a first process of irradiating the object with the laser light by control of the irradiation unit to form a modified spot and a fracture extending from the modified spot in the object so as not to reach an outer surface of the object, a second process of, after the first process, capturing an image of the object by control of the image capturing part and acquiring information indicating a formation state of the modified spot and/or the fracture.

An optical assembly may comprise an input fiber to provide a beam, a process fiber comprising a ring-shaped outer core surrounded by a cladding, and a first beam shifter arranged to receive the beam from the input fiber and to shift the beam spatially to illuminate the ring-shaped outer core of the process fiber. The optical assembly may further comprise a second beam shifter arranged to receive the beam from the first beam shifter and to add skew to the beam that is launched into the ring-shaped outer core of the process fiber.

A visible light laser system and operation for welding materials together. A blue laser system that forms essentially perfect welds for copper based materials. A blue laser system and operation for welding conductive elements, and in particular thin conductive elements, together for use in energy storage devices, such as battery packs.

Disclosed is a system for adding material by melting powder on a determined surface of a workpiece by means of a laser beam in order to construct a volume, the system comprising: -a laser beam emitting device, -a laser scanning head provided with at least two galvanometric mirrors and provided with a lens for focusing the reflected incident laser beam on the determined surface, the system comprising the laser scanning head being held stationary relative to the workpiece while the volume is constructed, -a powder injection device positioned laterally relative to the focused reflected incident laser beam in order to distribute the powder on the determined surface, -the powder is melted by the focused reflected incident laser beam emitted on the powder distributed on the determined surface.

A method of additive manufacture is disclosed. The method may include providing a powder bed and directing a shaped laser beam pulse train consisting of one or more pulses and having a flux greater than 20 kW/cm.sup.2 at a defined two dimensional region of the powder bed. This minimizes adverse laser plasma effects during the process of melting and fusing powder within the defined two dimensional region.

There is disclosed a method for manufacturing a stator for a rotary electric machine including: a process of abutting, on each other, tip end parts (40 of one coil piece (52) and an other one coil piece (52) for forming a stator coil (24) of a rotary electric machine (1); and a welding process of irradiating a welding target location regarding the tip end part having been abutted with a laser beam (110) having a wavelength of 0.6 .Math.m or less, in which an output distribution at a focal point of the laser beam has a flat center part.

A method of joining a razor blade to a blade support to form a razor blade assembly, the method including: directing a laser beam having an adjustable power output at an upper surface of the razor blade; and while advancing the laser beam along the razor blade: a) applying the laser beam at a first power output to the razor blade; b) reducing the first power output of the laser beam to a second power output; and c) applying the laser beam at the second power output to the razor to form a weld area joining the razor blade to the blade support. The weld area may be elongated and may include (i) a ratio of depth:width that is greater than about 2:1, and/or (ii) a ratio of length:width that is greater than about 5:1.

In various embodiments, a beam-parameter adjustment system and focusing system alters a spatial power distribution of a radiation beams before the beam is coupled into an optical fiber or delivered to a workpiece.

Apparatus, systems, and methods for tuning the structure, conductivity, and/or wettability of laser induced graphene for a variety of functions including but not limited to multiplexed open microfluidic environmental biosensing and energy storage devices. Aspects of this invention introduce a one-step, mask-free process to create, pattern, and tune laser-induced graphene (LIG) with a ubiquitous CO2 laser or other laser. The laser parameters are adjusted to create LIG with different electrical conductivity, surface morphology, and surface wettability without the need for post chemical modification. This can be done with a single lasing. By optionally introducing a second (or third, fourth, or more) lasing(s), the LIG characteristics can be changed in just the same one step of using the laser scribing without other machines or sub-systems. One example is a second lasing with the same laser sub-system at low laser power, wherein the wettability of the LIG can be significantly altered. Such films presented unique superhydrophobicity owing to the combination of the micro/nanotextured structure and the removal of the hydrophilic oxygen-containing functional groups. The ability to tune the wettability of LIG while retaining high electrical conductivity and mechanical robustness allows rational design of LIG based on application.