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Book
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Chapter
Laser Safety
All energy is dangerous, even gaining potential energy walking up stairs is dangerous! The laser is no exception, but it poses an unfamiliar hazard in the form of an optical beam. Fortunately, to date, the acc...
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Chapter
Prologue
It has been true throughout history that every time mankind has mastered a new form of energy there has been a significant, if not massive, step forward in our quality of life. Owing to the discovery of the la...
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Chapter
Epilogue
This book started with the extravagant claim that optical energy was a new form of energy and therefore should lead to a major advance in our quality of life, as has been the case with the mastery of other for...
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Chapter
Laser Bending or Forming
When a material is heated, the atoms it contains vibrate; the hotter it is, the stronger the vibrations and hence the atoms push each other apart and the material expands. If it is restrained from expanding, t...
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Chapter
Background to Laser Design and General Applications
The first part of this chapter briefly describes the basic principles of the physics and the construction of a laser. The second part of the chapter gives a sketch of the numerous ways in which the laser can b...
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Chapter
Biomedical Laser Processes and Equipment
Light plays an important role in living processes. We rely on light to stimulate the formation of certain vitamins (e.g., vitamin D from sunlight), we rely on light to perform the major manufacturing process of c...
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Chapter
Laser Cutting, Drilling and Piercing
The idea of cutting with light has appealed to many from the first time they burnt paper on a sunny day with the help of a magnifying glass. Cutting centimetre-thick steel (Figure 3.1) with a laser beam is eve...
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Chapter
Theory, Mathematical Modelling and Simulation
The processes to be modelled are described in their various forms in this book. There are several aspects that represent a challenge to any would-be modeller. They are shown in Figure 5.1. Some of the models t...
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Chapter
Rapid Prototyping and Low-volume Manufacture
In recent years two things have happened. The first is the astounding growth of computer memories, which now allow the design of “three-dimensional” models which can be rotated and visualised, surfaces to be a...
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Chapter
Laser Cleaning
Laser cleaning is growing in importance, particularly in applications such as the removal of small debris particles from semiconductors and in art conservation. With the introduction of the Montreal protocol, ...
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Chapter
Basic Laser Optics
In this chapter the basic nature of light and its interaction with matter is described and the fundamentals of how such energy can be manipulated in direction and shape are presented.
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Chapter
Laser Automation and In-process Sensing
The recent developments in industry, particularly through the activities of Ford Motor Company, where the word “automation” was first used in the 1940s, have sketched a progression through “mechanisation” – th...
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Chapter
Laser Welding
The focused laser beam is one of the highest power density sources available to industry today. It is similar in power density to an electron beam. Together these two processes represent part of the new techno...
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Chapter
Laser Surface Treatment
The laser has some unique properties for surface heating. The electromagnetic radiation of a laser beam is absorbed within the first few atomic layers for opaque materials, such as metals, and there are no ass...
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Chapter
Laser Ablative Processes – Macro- and Micromachining
The interest in ablation as a process has recently become important with the introduction of very powerful, ultrashort laser pulses of immense power but little energy. Such pulses can deliver energy at a rate ...
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Book
-
Chapter
Laser Safety
All energy is dangerous, even gaining potential energy walking up stairs is dangerous! The laser is no exception, but it poses an unfamiliar hazard in the form of an optical beam. Fortunately, to date, the acc...
-
Chapter
Epilogue
This book started with the extravagant claim that optical energy was a new form of energy and therefore should lead to a major advance in our quality of life, as has been the case with the mastery of other for...
-
Chapter
Prologue
It has been true throughout history that every time mankind has mastered a new form of energy there has been a significant, if not massive, step forward in our quality of life. Due to the discovery of the lase...
