An apparatus and a method for powder bed fusion additive manufacturing involve a multiple-chamber design achieving a high efficiency and throughput. The multiple-chamber design features concurrent printing of one or more print jobs inside one or more build chambers, side removals of printed objects from build chambers allowing quick exchanges of powdered materials, and capabilities of elevated process temperature controls of build chambers and post processing heat treatments of printed objects. The multiple-chamber design also includes a height-adjustable optical assembly in combination with a fixed build platform method suitable for large and heavy printed objects.

A closure device for a chamber housing a laser units for cutting a sheet metal strip includes, in proximity of an exit slit of the strip to be machined, a bar arranged transversely to the axis of advancement of the strip, and having, at the lower edges of the major side surfaces, longitudinal edges of a U-folded plate bound thereto. The plate has a plurality of transverse slots ending before its edges. An actuator provided for a vertical movement of the bar.

A galvanometric laser for cutting and/or etching textile embellishments such as transfers or applique's and a method of operation thereof that is capable of visually capturing an incoming graphic image and referencing a cut pattern to the captured image and dynamically adjusting the cut pattern during cutting, etching and/or application of energy from the laser to thereby compensate for distortions in the fabric. The device includes a conveyor with an imaging station at which the graphic product is indexed under a high-resolution static camera with color recognition capability for the purposes of image capture. A high intensity bottoms-up light source resident at the imaging station provides ample illumination regardless of whether the design elements are face up toward the camera or face down toward the light source, or a combination of both. The system includes a computer at which the captured product image is analyzed, and the analytics are used to adjust the input cut file specifying the location and power settings for laser application. The product is then advanced in a controlled manner by means of the conveyor into a galvanometric cutting station where laser energy is applied. After completion the product is advanced out of the galvanometric cutting station for packaging.

A method of layering a layer of circuitry pattern to another layer of circuitry pattern during the manufacturing of a multilayer flexible printed circuit in a reel-to-reel machine. The method includes feeding both layers of circuitry pattern reel-to-reel into the machine, placing a layer of dielectric sheet material on the fly between the two layers of circuitry patterns reel-to-reel, followed by simultaneously passing the two layers of circuitry pattern and the dielectric sheet material under a laser scanner in the reel-to-reel machine to irradiate a laser beam on a layer of circuitry pattern to weld the two layers of circuitry patterns together.

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.

A method of additive manufacture is disclosed. The method may include restricting, by an enclosure, an exchange of gaseous matter between an interior of the enclosure and an exterior of the enclosure. The method may further include running multiple machines within the enclosure. Each of the machines may execute its own process of additive manufacture. While the machines are running, a gas management system may maintain gaseous oxygen within the enclosure at or below a limiting oxygen concentration for the interior.

The invention relates to a method for producing lamellae for a lamellae package, wherein the lamellae are punched from a metal strip by at least one punching die. At least one part of the contour of the lamella is produced by stream cutting. The method is carried out such that the lamella is still held in the metal strip. The lamella is punched out of the metal strip by the punching die. The stream cutting results in clean cutting edges, which do not require reworking of the lamella. The device for carrying out the method according to the invention has a stream cutting unit upstream of the punching press which has at least one stream cutting head. A wide variety of lamella contours can be cut out of the metal strip with high accuracy using said stream cutting unit.

A method and an apparatus pertaining to recycling and reuse of unwanted light in additive manufacturing can multiplex multiple beams of light including at least one or more beams of light from one or more light sources. The multiple beams of light may be reshaped and blended to provide a first beam of light. A spatial polarization pattern may be applied on the first beam of light to provide a second beam of light. Polarization states of the second beam of light may be split to reflect a third beam of light, which may be reshaped into a fourth beam of light. The fourth beam of light may be introduced as one of the multiple beams of light to result in a fifth beam of light.

A method and an apparatus pertaining to polarization combining in additive manufacturing may involve emitting two or more beams of light with a first intensity. Each of the two or more beams of light may be polarized and may have a majority polarization state and a minority polarization state. A respective polarization pattern may be applied on the majority polarization state of each of the two or more beams of light. The two or more beams of light may be combined to provide a single beam of light.

The present disclosure relates to an electrode plate processing device. The electrode plate processing device includes: an electrode plate cutting mechanism having a cutting position; and an electrode plate rolling mechanism, through which an electrode plate passes. The electrode plate rolling mechanism includes a first roller and a second roller. The first roller has a vacuum adsorption zone for adsorbing a waste edge of the electrode plate. The cutting position is provided in upstream of the vacuum adsorption zone along a conveying direction of the electrode plate processing device.