A method of fabricating an object by additive manufacturing is provided. The method includes irradiating a portion of powder in a powder bed, the irradiation creating an ion channel extending to the powder. The method also includes applying electrical energy to the ion channel, wherein the electrical energy is transmitted through the ion channel to the powder in the powder bed, and energy from the irradiation and the electrical energy each contribute to melting or sintering the portion of the powder in the powder bed.

A system for treating material of a cutting element may include a method, and the method may include providing a piece of material to form a blank for the cutting element, and applying a cladding material to at least a portion of the blank utilizing a laser to bond a cladding powder to the exterior surface of the blank. The application may include selecting and utilizing a power level of the laser and a rate of movement of the spot of the laser across the exterior surface which is effective to form a stratum of martensite in the substrate of the material below the exterior surface and the cladding material bonded to the exterior surface. The method may further include removing a portion of the cladded blank to form a cutting edge with a portion of the stratum of martensite exposed at the cutting edge.

A machine tool arranged to deliver an energy source through a processing head onto a work-piece, wherein; the machine-tool has a clamping mechanism arranged to temporarily receive the processing-head, or another machining or processing-head, to process a work-piece; the processing-head comprising one or more guiding mechanisms arranged to direct the energy source onto a work-piece and a processing-head docking-manifold arranged to have connected thereto one or more media to be, in use, supplied to the processing-head to facilitate processing of the work-piece; wherein the processing-head docking-manifold allows the one or more media to be supplied to the processing-head when the processing-head is connected to the clamping mechanism; and wherein the machine-tool also comprises at least one mechanism arranged to move a supply docking-manifold into and/or out of connection with the processing-head docking-manifold such that when the two manifolds are connected the or each media is supplied to the processing head.

In various embodiments, workpieces are processed, e.g., via welding or cutting, while the shape and/or one or more other parameters of the laser processing beam are altered. The shape and/or one or more other parameters of the laser processing beam may be varied based on one or more characteristics of the workpiece.

The invention provides a method for laser modification of a sample to form a modified region at a target location within the sample. The method comprises positioning a sample in a laser system for modification by a laser; measuring tilt of a surface of the sample through which the laser focusses; using at least the measured tilt to determine a correction to be applied to an active optical element of the laser system; applying the correction to the active optical element to modify wavefront properties of the laser to counteract an effect of coma on laser focus; and laser modifying the sample at the target location using the laser with the corrected wavefront properties to produce the modified region.

An irradiation system includes: a first beam source configured to output a first laser beam and a second beam source configured to output a second laser beam, in which the second laser beam has a higher beam quality higher than that of the first laser beam;

optics arranged to focus the first and second laser beams; and a beam guiding system including a first beam path along which the first laser beam is guided, and a second beam path along which the second laser beam is guided, in which the beam guiding system includes a beam combiner to superimpose the first and second laser beams, the first beam source is a pump laser, the second beam source is a laser resonator, and the beam guiding system further includes a beam switch adapted to feed the first laser beam into a pump laser beam path and/or into the first beam path.

For allowing a crack to progress between respective lines reliably while shortening a laser beam irradiation time, a method for processing SiC material includes allowing a laser beam to be absorbed in a cutting scheduled plane of an SiC material to form an altered pattern including a plurality of line-shaped altered regions; and cutting the SiC material along the cutting scheduled plane, wherein a plurality of line-shaped main altered regions extending in a predetermined direction, arranged at a first pitch P1 and included in altered region groups is formed, and a plurality of altered region groups is arranged at a second pitch P2 larger than the first pitch P1.

A method for matching and tracking workpieces in laser etching operation includes generating by the computer a label image that uniquely identifies the workpiece, moving a laser head to the workpiece, setting the laser head to a first power level by a power controller, etching the product image on the workpiece using a laser beam emitted from the laser head, wherein the laser beam is modulated at the first power level in accordance with a product image in a pixel wise fashion across the workpiece, moving the laser head to the label by the transport mechanism, setting the laser head to a second power level by the power controller, etching the label image on the workpiece using a laser beam emitted from the laser head, wherein the laser beam is modulated at the second power level in accordance with the label image in a pixel wise fashion across the label.

An inline thermal treatment system for thermally treating a continuous product includes a housing comprising a first opening and second opening respectively configured to allow the continuous product to enter and to exit the housing. The system includes at least one laser coupled to a laser power source and configured to output at least one laser beam that impinges upon and heats the portion of the continuous product.

In a laser machining apparatus, a controller is configured to perform: supplying an initial drive current to a pump light emitting device during an initial drive current supply period; controlling a scanner to start scanning a laser beam emitted from a laser beam emitting device after a standby period has elapsed from a start of supplying the initial drive current; and supplying a prescribed drive current to the pump light emitting device after the initial drive current supply period has elapsed, a prescribed drive current value being smaller than an initial drive current value, the pump light emitting device emitting the pump light having prescribed light intensity upon receipt of the prescribed drive current, the laser beam emitting device emitting the laser beam having prescribed beam intensity when the pump light having the prescribed light intensity is incident upon the laser beam emitting device.