The Connecticut River rises in the mountains of Vermont and wends its way through four states into Long Island Sound and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. The Connecticut River rises in the mountains of Vermont and wends its way through four states into Long Island Sound and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way it historically provided the water power for hundreds of industries, among them the American precision machining industry that was born in Vermont. These hundreds of companies, now spun off into thousands, are the backbone of Yankee industry; many of which are small family-owned shops trying to adapt to the 21st Century through changing technology.
Yankees are a stoic bunch, not given to outward emotion; so when surveyors come asking for their outlook on the economy the Yankee turns taciturn and as a result those conducting the survey can be confused by the statistics that result.
Prior to last week’s Eastec in West Springfield, MA, held along the banks of the Connecticut River, forecasts of a reduced and non-buying attendance were common. But the Yankees proved the soothsayers wrong and they turned out in very large numbers to "kick the tires" on manufacturing equipment that will allow them to compete in a global economy. And no one was more pleasantly surprised than me, maybe because I don't qualify as a Yankee, since my family roots only go back 100+ years here. My wife’s go back 300 so she qualifies.
According to the organizers, the SME, attendance this year was down about 12% from 2008's approximately 13,700 and the number of exhibitors was down about 5% to 580. Not a bad showing in what is proving to be a soft year for many trade shows. Yankees are also known to be shrewd so maybe they sense a change about to happen.
For lasers Eastec was a marking show with a dozen and a half suppliers exhibiting their products, most of them in one of the five building exhibit spaces at the Big E Fairgrounds. There cheek-by-jowl were a baker's dozen of companies each showing the latest in laser marking/engraving technology. It was a powerful display of laser technology, so much so that one visitor was overheard saying to his partner, "Just look at all these #*@%& lasers!"
I spoke with representatives of each of the equipment suppliers and asked how they are managing in an unusual down year for laser marking sales, and how they view prospects for the rest of the year. I also asked their opinion of future opportunities for continued growth along the lines of the past three years.
Not unexpectedly consensus ruled among the answers received, after all this is a trade show and optimism is usually prevalent at shows. These suppliers reported mixed results for the year so far with most companies citing spotty successes but all admitting that sales are off compared to last year. A frequently heard comment was that buyers, and they are still out there, are shopping more assiduously, often asking for quotes from six or more suppliers. This is counter to previous years when, at most, three companies might bid against each other. One buyer has an Excel analysis of more than two dozen suppliers that lists all equipment specifications so that he can just click on a characteristic, marking area for example, and compare all the suppliers. So making a sale is tough but there are sales being made.
Suppliers favor a six-month horizon right now where they expect sales to increase slightly in the fourth quarter and really pick up in the first half of 2010. The trouble with six-month horizons is that they have an annoying habit of stretching out.
The suppliers all agreed with me that laser marking will likely lead the recovery in the industrial laser market. The reason: the technology is far from saturation, demands from regulatory actions are still in place, and, more to the point, business will respond quickly to consumers reentering the retail markets.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
"As GM goes, so goes the country"
The Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth, Michigan, is a remarkable place to hold a technical conference. The Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth, Michigan, is a remarkable place to hold a technical conference. First built as a seminary in 1955 by the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, the sprawling brick complex was turned into a hotel, conference and golf center in 1998, without significant changes to the marble floored and walled interior except for remodeling and conversion of one wing to a multi-room hotel. Almost smack dab in the middle of the facility is a beautiful chapel left over from the seminary days. At this year’s two-track Automotive Laser Applications Workshop (ALAW) the auto sessions were held in one wing and the fabrication sessions in the other, so if you were bouncing between them to sit in on presentations of interest you had to pass by the chapel.
Given the parlous state of the economy in Michigan and this week the continuing bad news from the auto industry as General Motors and Chrysler were forced to reduce the number of U.S. dealerships, visitors to the area were left in a depressed mood. So much so that a visit to the peaceful chapel, with time taken to contemplate that all things eventually sort themselves out and the auto industry will rebound, albeit in a decisively different look, gave the more thoughtful of us a fresher, renewed outlook on life. But I must concede that in the dozens of times I passed the chapel I never saw anyone seeking a higher perspective on life.
Attendance at this year’s event was down from past performance and that was not unexpected as conferences across the country are seeing drops of 25% or more in paid attendance. Perhaps most disturbing was a remark by an industry veteran, “where are all the users,” a reference to the attendance list which was dominated by suppliers of industrial laser products and representatives of several applications development institutions. By my count about 30% of registrants were considered as commercial users of industrial lasers. And since ALAW was designed to disseminate laser processing information to end users, one would have to conclude that the economic recession, and its impact on travel budgets was the culprit. In reality ALAW, except for its early years, has traditionally not drawn big numbers from the auto industry. Reasons for this abound but maybe it is time for the current organizers to reassess the auto theme and expand the applications presentations to other industrial areas.
Presenters in the automotive track described some interesting applications that can and will have impact in the auto industry and beyond, for example in battery and fuel cell processing. The opening session on tailored blank and tube welding sort of fell flat as the economic news from that sector is not at all good, especially with the demise of a leading supplier of blanks recently announced and the gross numbers for auto units to be built this year down dramatically.
News emanating from R&D work on battery and fuel cell welding was a highlight as the attendees were introduced to new technology assessments on laser welding of heretofore unweldable dissimilar metal combinations and materials that prior to the introduction of high brightness solid-state lasers were unweldable.
ALAW still has ongoing problems with commercialization in some of the talks, and the organizers should heed the comments of attendees and do away with these obviously biased and too-focused speakers. Maybe they should look at the number of attendees that leave the room as these sales pitches are delivered.
Remote welding, definitely an auto application, is always interesting to view as technology changes make this process almost a necessity in this industry. However, with the ongoing bad news in the industry, the edge is taken off the breakthroughs that are being made.
All-in-all ALAW met my expectations in a year when conference attendance is down. Overall they did all right. I was sorry to see that too large number of registrants did not show, but those that did were treated to some interesting news they can carry back to their companies.
Given the parlous state of the economy in Michigan and this week the continuing bad news from the auto industry as General Motors and Chrysler were forced to reduce the number of U.S. dealerships, visitors to the area were left in a depressed mood. So much so that a visit to the peaceful chapel, with time taken to contemplate that all things eventually sort themselves out and the auto industry will rebound, albeit in a decisively different look, gave the more thoughtful of us a fresher, renewed outlook on life. But I must concede that in the dozens of times I passed the chapel I never saw anyone seeking a higher perspective on life.
Attendance at this year’s event was down from past performance and that was not unexpected as conferences across the country are seeing drops of 25% or more in paid attendance. Perhaps most disturbing was a remark by an industry veteran, “where are all the users,” a reference to the attendance list which was dominated by suppliers of industrial laser products and representatives of several applications development institutions. By my count about 30% of registrants were considered as commercial users of industrial lasers. And since ALAW was designed to disseminate laser processing information to end users, one would have to conclude that the economic recession, and its impact on travel budgets was the culprit. In reality ALAW, except for its early years, has traditionally not drawn big numbers from the auto industry. Reasons for this abound but maybe it is time for the current organizers to reassess the auto theme and expand the applications presentations to other industrial areas.
Presenters in the automotive track described some interesting applications that can and will have impact in the auto industry and beyond, for example in battery and fuel cell processing. The opening session on tailored blank and tube welding sort of fell flat as the economic news from that sector is not at all good, especially with the demise of a leading supplier of blanks recently announced and the gross numbers for auto units to be built this year down dramatically.
News emanating from R&D work on battery and fuel cell welding was a highlight as the attendees were introduced to new technology assessments on laser welding of heretofore unweldable dissimilar metal combinations and materials that prior to the introduction of high brightness solid-state lasers were unweldable.
ALAW still has ongoing problems with commercialization in some of the talks, and the organizers should heed the comments of attendees and do away with these obviously biased and too-focused speakers. Maybe they should look at the number of attendees that leave the room as these sales pitches are delivered.
Remote welding, definitely an auto application, is always interesting to view as technology changes make this process almost a necessity in this industry. However, with the ongoing bad news in the industry, the edge is taken off the breakthroughs that are being made.
All-in-all ALAW met my expectations in a year when conference attendance is down. Overall they did all right. I was sorry to see that too large number of registrants did not show, but those that did were treated to some interesting news they can carry back to their companies.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
It's Spring, I see green shoots
It must be the Spring weather which finally has made it North to the Canadian border. It must be the Spring weather which finally has made it North to the Canadian border. The DABometer Recession Gauge has been hovering around neutral for the past few days and on more than one occasion has gone positive. The pundits call this green shoots.
Business acquaintances are mentioning recovery more often lately and an associate just returned from Southeast Asia reports that the restaurants where he dined in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai were all full. Frankly I chalk this up to the fact that these are big cities where everyone eats out all the time anyway. As a chill on this good news he also reported that the Business Class seats on the several airlines he flew were half empty. Just like the proverbial glass of water I guess.
Several contacts from the industrial laser processing world are sensing a shift in the bad news department. Hannover Messe just reported that over 210,000 people visited more than 6100 exhibits over a five day period at that industry show, a clear sign, the organizers say, that industry is putting the recession behind as they look to the future. However I notice, pointedly, that their press release does not make mention of this year's attendance number relative to the last. And a news release for the European Union headed “EU: Europe in Widespread Recession” didn’t exactly make my day. On the other hand I have a stack of press releases dating back to late December in which various European sources claimed that the recession was mild. The EU was quoted yesterday as saying they were way off the mark in earlier forecasts. Makes you sort of wonder if the bureaucrats in Brussels know which end is up. From now on I’ll take their forecasts with a grain of salt.
On the anecdotal front a machine tool distributor friend, who also sells laser cutting equipment, told me that he booked a $13 million order for fabricating equipment, with enough commission to send him to Florida for a few weeks. The word from China is that the government GNP goal will be met and that their stimulus package is working faster than thought. An expatriate former U.S. marketing guy tells me that the business for his new employer is booming in China and he expects to exceed his quota early this year.
Many of the phone calls I receive, you remember the phone don’t you, begin with “Has the turnaround started?” At first I thought this was just a joke, but then realized that these callers are seeing the same signs I am. My answer is that with a recent spurt of bad economic news from the manufacturing sector (led by the auto industry) it hasn’t happened yet. But contrary to the tea baggers around the U.S. some of the stimulus spending they abhor seems to be flowing to the right areas and things are not as gloomy as they were when the new year started. Not great, but green shoots are showing and that’s a cause for optimism.
The Feds report on the banking industry isn’t out yet and that might be an indicator. This might put a crimp in those shoots. But like my tough crocii that pop up in February when we have a couple of warm days and then hunker down when we have a particularly nasty late winter storm they always come back. My Asian reporter who went to see the birthplace of peonies on his trip, and who owns some Asian peony tree plants says that his took a beating with the bad Midwestern weather in March. Mine, Western varieties, are up a foot and thriving. So it’s no turnaround everywhere yet, like the news, but the signs are there. So be of good faith.
Business acquaintances are mentioning recovery more often lately and an associate just returned from Southeast Asia reports that the restaurants where he dined in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai were all full. Frankly I chalk this up to the fact that these are big cities where everyone eats out all the time anyway. As a chill on this good news he also reported that the Business Class seats on the several airlines he flew were half empty. Just like the proverbial glass of water I guess.
Several contacts from the industrial laser processing world are sensing a shift in the bad news department. Hannover Messe just reported that over 210,000 people visited more than 6100 exhibits over a five day period at that industry show, a clear sign, the organizers say, that industry is putting the recession behind as they look to the future. However I notice, pointedly, that their press release does not make mention of this year's attendance number relative to the last. And a news release for the European Union headed “EU: Europe in Widespread Recession” didn’t exactly make my day. On the other hand I have a stack of press releases dating back to late December in which various European sources claimed that the recession was mild. The EU was quoted yesterday as saying they were way off the mark in earlier forecasts. Makes you sort of wonder if the bureaucrats in Brussels know which end is up. From now on I’ll take their forecasts with a grain of salt.
On the anecdotal front a machine tool distributor friend, who also sells laser cutting equipment, told me that he booked a $13 million order for fabricating equipment, with enough commission to send him to Florida for a few weeks. The word from China is that the government GNP goal will be met and that their stimulus package is working faster than thought. An expatriate former U.S. marketing guy tells me that the business for his new employer is booming in China and he expects to exceed his quota early this year.
Many of the phone calls I receive, you remember the phone don’t you, begin with “Has the turnaround started?” At first I thought this was just a joke, but then realized that these callers are seeing the same signs I am. My answer is that with a recent spurt of bad economic news from the manufacturing sector (led by the auto industry) it hasn’t happened yet. But contrary to the tea baggers around the U.S. some of the stimulus spending they abhor seems to be flowing to the right areas and things are not as gloomy as they were when the new year started. Not great, but green shoots are showing and that’s a cause for optimism.
The Feds report on the banking industry isn’t out yet and that might be an indicator. This might put a crimp in those shoots. But like my tough crocii that pop up in February when we have a couple of warm days and then hunker down when we have a particularly nasty late winter storm they always come back. My Asian reporter who went to see the birthplace of peonies on his trip, and who owns some Asian peony tree plants says that his took a beating with the bad Midwestern weather in March. Mine, Western varieties, are up a foot and thriving. So it’s no turnaround everywhere yet, like the news, but the signs are there. So be of good faith.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Pontiac--We Build Excitement
We are having a family gathering and many of the children and grandchildren are seated at the table for lunch. We are having a family gathering and many of the children and grandchildren are seated at the table for lunch. The subjects range from the mundane, the latest reports from Red Sox Nation, to semi-technical, should the kids have freer usage of cell phones at school. When all of a sudden I get Twittered. My niece, seated at the other end of the long table asks, “Can you pass the mustard please?”
Laugh if you will, and we did, but actually with several preteen children jabbering away and a couple of side conversations among adults, the table was abuzz with conversations. So rather than raise her voice above the din to get my attention she Twittered. Now really! Me tweet?
Anyhow, as usually happens when my family gathers we reminisce about growing up. The younger ones like the oft told stories and in fact they usually ask for special favorites. The subject this day was my Dad and his love for automobiles. In his youth, just before the last great depression/recession he left home for Detroit to work for Henry Ford. Funny I never heard him say a bad word about Ford, which had a terrible reputation when it came to unions.
To my Father a car was a manifestation of achievement. When you owned one it was a status symbol; you had arrived at a certain social level, a measure of success. Young readers will find this humorous because now cars are a necessity not a luxury.
Even with his experience at Ford my Father was a General Motors man, and specifically a Pontiac man. He owned a succession of Pontiacs; all purchased from the local Pontiac/Cadillac dealer, mostly second hand until my folks became empty nesters and had the extra income to purchase new ones.
The last Pontiac he owned was lovingly dusted every day, as it sat out in the driveway after we tore down the old garage. An accidental fall with subsequent hospitalization, which eventually led to a nursing home, cut short his driving days. My sister was charged with keeping the Pontiac clean and running it up to the shopping center every once in awhile to get the condensation out of the muffler.
Finally it was time to sell it off and she did, and with a heavy heart informed my father of this action. He acknowledged that it had to be done, but we could tell it hurt him, even though he knew he would never drive again. She claims he never forgave her for this action. We talked about the Pontiac almost every weekly visit. Knowing my connections to Detroit automotive, he routinely asked what was new at Pontiac. He reveled when I told him that I had driven the first Pontiac Fiero coupe around the parking lot of the Michigan assembly plant. The nursing home staff told me that this anecdote was the theme of the men’s discussion group for days.
Why this reminiscence? Well rumor has it that GM will be asked to close down Pontiac, the muscle car king of Detroit. It would have been the saddest day for my father and it is a sad day for all car buffs. Another name badge gone and with it another part of U.S. manufacturing lore.
Laugh if you will, and we did, but actually with several preteen children jabbering away and a couple of side conversations among adults, the table was abuzz with conversations. So rather than raise her voice above the din to get my attention she Twittered. Now really! Me tweet?
Anyhow, as usually happens when my family gathers we reminisce about growing up. The younger ones like the oft told stories and in fact they usually ask for special favorites. The subject this day was my Dad and his love for automobiles. In his youth, just before the last great depression/recession he left home for Detroit to work for Henry Ford. Funny I never heard him say a bad word about Ford, which had a terrible reputation when it came to unions.
To my Father a car was a manifestation of achievement. When you owned one it was a status symbol; you had arrived at a certain social level, a measure of success. Young readers will find this humorous because now cars are a necessity not a luxury.
Even with his experience at Ford my Father was a General Motors man, and specifically a Pontiac man. He owned a succession of Pontiacs; all purchased from the local Pontiac/Cadillac dealer, mostly second hand until my folks became empty nesters and had the extra income to purchase new ones.
The last Pontiac he owned was lovingly dusted every day, as it sat out in the driveway after we tore down the old garage. An accidental fall with subsequent hospitalization, which eventually led to a nursing home, cut short his driving days. My sister was charged with keeping the Pontiac clean and running it up to the shopping center every once in awhile to get the condensation out of the muffler.
Finally it was time to sell it off and she did, and with a heavy heart informed my father of this action. He acknowledged that it had to be done, but we could tell it hurt him, even though he knew he would never drive again. She claims he never forgave her for this action. We talked about the Pontiac almost every weekly visit. Knowing my connections to Detroit automotive, he routinely asked what was new at Pontiac. He reveled when I told him that I had driven the first Pontiac Fiero coupe around the parking lot of the Michigan assembly plant. The nursing home staff told me that this anecdote was the theme of the men’s discussion group for days.
Why this reminiscence? Well rumor has it that GM will be asked to close down Pontiac, the muscle car king of Detroit. It would have been the saddest day for my father and it is a sad day for all car buffs. Another name badge gone and with it another part of U.S. manufacturing lore.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Legacy
Since when did the word legacy become negative? Since when did the word legacy become negative? Merriam-Webster gives it just two brief meanings; (n) money left to someone by a will; bequest or anything handed down from, or as from, an ancestor. Hmmm, that seems quite positive to me. Wikipedia has dozens of references, all mostly positive except perhaps for some movie and book titles, which may have darker meaning in their content. The only sort of negativity I found is legacy carrier (an older airline) or legacy software (a term for out-of-date hardware and/or software still in use). Maybe this last one is getting close--out of date but still hanging around.
I only mention this because it seems in the last few years that the word legacy has gone from being a positive noun to being a negative adjective, like in John Madden, who suddenly announced his retirement, was a legacy analyst on Sunday Night Football. He’s 73, sharp as a tack, but he’s been around a bit, so legacy implies he may not be capable of describing certain football field action in modern terms. Too bad John, I thought you were still pretty sharp; but then I am a legacy fan.
Ridiculousness was reached however when I read that the so-called toxic assets of shaky banks were now being termed legacy assets by the current administration in Washington. Two-edged sword here because legacy is meant to be less inflammatory than toxic (good) but still negative (bad).
“Legacy assets” are those assets which are less productive (outdated) and in some cases least productive over time, they are just on the brink of being a liability. The term “toxic asset” is a rather new non-technical term used to describe certain financial assets when their value has fallen significantly and when there is no longer a functioning market for these assets, so that they cannot be reasonably sold.
Now I’m getting a clue; legacy means, according to the bean counters, outdated, least productive, almost a liability. It’s beginning to be clear that some wet-behind-the-ears MBAs, probably working for large business consulting companies, found the word legacy was a less-harsh word than old, out of date, or not productive. This got hijacked by corporate managers facing staff downsizing in the last few years and seized upon as a euphemism for old, which helps them avoid age-related litigation.
Poor John, he claims it was time for him to go. I chose to believe that he was called into the network president’s office and advised that he was now a legacy analyst and that the younger, hipper (read that heavy discretionary spending) viewers were turned off by his dredging up comparisons from his years of experience.
The other day, at a technical conference, I caught myself expounding on a laser application that seems to be undergoing a resurrection, laser peening (ILS August 2008). It first appeared in the 1970s to a lot of technical interest but no business potential and since then has occasionally popped up, last time when a major jet engine maker installed some systems. At the coffee break, the speaker presenting an update of the process and I were comparing notes on what had transpired over the years. I stopped and told him, jokingly, that he was a legacy technologist, with a legacy idea, talking to a non-legacy audience, except for me, the legacy attendee.
I only mention this because it seems in the last few years that the word legacy has gone from being a positive noun to being a negative adjective, like in John Madden, who suddenly announced his retirement, was a legacy analyst on Sunday Night Football. He’s 73, sharp as a tack, but he’s been around a bit, so legacy implies he may not be capable of describing certain football field action in modern terms. Too bad John, I thought you were still pretty sharp; but then I am a legacy fan.
Ridiculousness was reached however when I read that the so-called toxic assets of shaky banks were now being termed legacy assets by the current administration in Washington. Two-edged sword here because legacy is meant to be less inflammatory than toxic (good) but still negative (bad).
“Legacy assets” are those assets which are less productive (outdated) and in some cases least productive over time, they are just on the brink of being a liability. The term “toxic asset” is a rather new non-technical term used to describe certain financial assets when their value has fallen significantly and when there is no longer a functioning market for these assets, so that they cannot be reasonably sold.
Now I’m getting a clue; legacy means, according to the bean counters, outdated, least productive, almost a liability. It’s beginning to be clear that some wet-behind-the-ears MBAs, probably working for large business consulting companies, found the word legacy was a less-harsh word than old, out of date, or not productive. This got hijacked by corporate managers facing staff downsizing in the last few years and seized upon as a euphemism for old, which helps them avoid age-related litigation.
Poor John, he claims it was time for him to go. I chose to believe that he was called into the network president’s office and advised that he was now a legacy analyst and that the younger, hipper (read that heavy discretionary spending) viewers were turned off by his dredging up comparisons from his years of experience.
The other day, at a technical conference, I caught myself expounding on a laser application that seems to be undergoing a resurrection, laser peening (ILS August 2008). It first appeared in the 1970s to a lot of technical interest but no business potential and since then has occasionally popped up, last time when a major jet engine maker installed some systems. At the coffee break, the speaker presenting an update of the process and I were comparing notes on what had transpired over the years. I stopped and told him, jokingly, that he was a legacy technologist, with a legacy idea, talking to a non-legacy audience, except for me, the legacy attendee.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Oh, and the moon is made of green cheese
OK that does it. It seems like every so often I get another jolt to my settled brain cells. OK that does it. It seems like every so often I get another jolt to my settled brain cells. You know what I mean – the earth is really flat and there is life on Mars. As man (and woman) gets smarter with the aid of magnificent new diagnostic instruments and more powerful computers, we learn more frequently it seems that long-cherished beliefs are not true, or at least not so obviously true.
Most of these, like the aforementioned, I just read with humor since they are just fillers in my morning paper. You remember papers don’t you? These are the product of countless reporters and journalists who are out there digging for news that I can chose to leisurely read, or not, when I have my second cup of coffee. And because it is a paper, not someone’s home page, I occasionally find choice little tidbits that I never thought I had interest in.
The disruptive thinking that really set me off appeared via Goggle, however. And it was enough to ruin my weekend. The sacred “straight as a laser beam” has been challenged by researchers at the University of Central Florida, who report (Phys. Lett, 99, 2133901) they have come up with a family of non-diffracting waveforms that appear to curve.
Curve? What happened to the fictional hero who has a piercing look like a laser beam, or the arrow shot straight as a laser at the cowboy? It bends, they say. Now I know why that laser alignment tool for leveling a set of three pictures my wife wanted hung gave me the false reading that has them marching downhill. No wonder I had so much trouble aligning an eleven-mirror CO2 laser beam sharing delivery system for laser cutting, laser welding, or laser surface treatment...It wasn’t me; it was that curved beam.
Some of you will already know about this since it was first reported in November 2007. I’m a little slow on the uptake optical science-wise, and it was Goggle that turned it up among a bunch of references I was searching. So it just got my eye. Wouldn't have happened if it appeared in my local paper because I have a calibrated eyeball that focuses, like a laser beam, every time the word laser appears, setting off a pulse through my synapses to my memory bank.
So forgive me Demetri (Christodoulides) and Aristide (Dogariu) and colleagues at Central Florida for not picking up on this sooner. Did you get any interesting ideas from more wide awake Web searchers on what you can do with these curved laser beams? Shoot James Bond around a corner? I can hardly wait. I guess I’ll have to change my Goggle search parameters to include “stuff I can live without but like to read anyway.”
Most of these, like the aforementioned, I just read with humor since they are just fillers in my morning paper. You remember papers don’t you? These are the product of countless reporters and journalists who are out there digging for news that I can chose to leisurely read, or not, when I have my second cup of coffee. And because it is a paper, not someone’s home page, I occasionally find choice little tidbits that I never thought I had interest in.
The disruptive thinking that really set me off appeared via Goggle, however. And it was enough to ruin my weekend. The sacred “straight as a laser beam” has been challenged by researchers at the University of Central Florida, who report (Phys. Lett, 99, 2133901) they have come up with a family of non-diffracting waveforms that appear to curve.
Curve? What happened to the fictional hero who has a piercing look like a laser beam, or the arrow shot straight as a laser at the cowboy? It bends, they say. Now I know why that laser alignment tool for leveling a set of three pictures my wife wanted hung gave me the false reading that has them marching downhill. No wonder I had so much trouble aligning an eleven-mirror CO2 laser beam sharing delivery system for laser cutting, laser welding, or laser surface treatment...It wasn’t me; it was that curved beam.
Some of you will already know about this since it was first reported in November 2007. I’m a little slow on the uptake optical science-wise, and it was Goggle that turned it up among a bunch of references I was searching. So it just got my eye. Wouldn't have happened if it appeared in my local paper because I have a calibrated eyeball that focuses, like a laser beam, every time the word laser appears, setting off a pulse through my synapses to my memory bank.
So forgive me Demetri (Christodoulides) and Aristide (Dogariu) and colleagues at Central Florida for not picking up on this sooner. Did you get any interesting ideas from more wide awake Web searchers on what you can do with these curved laser beams? Shoot James Bond around a corner? I can hardly wait. I guess I’ll have to change my Goggle search parameters to include “stuff I can live without but like to read anyway.”
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
If it looks like a duck...it must be a duck
More than 35 years ago I had the nerve to try, single handedly, to introduce laser cutting of sheet metal into North America.
More than 35 years ago I had the nerve to try, single handedly, to introduce laser cutting of sheet metal into North America. Bear with me before you say, “Here he goes again with the boring history of industrial laser technology.” Believe me there is an up-to-date message coming.
Back in the early 1970s laser cutting of sheet metal had been established in Germany and the United Kingdom through the efforts of researchers who had created the oxygen assist cutting technology, and a few far-sighted equipment suppliers; among which was a company for whom I then worked. With only 450 watts of CO2 laser power and a gas jet assist nozzle, Ferranti and Messer Greisheim were generating reams of data on the cutting of metals and non-metals.
I was charged with using this data to convince skeptical fabricating equipment buyers of the technical and cost benefits of this powerful new job shop tool. To do this, I bombarded industry with press releases, wrote technical articles, conducted workshops and spoke at technical conferences. All on the subject of laser beam cutting of sheet metals.
In those early days of industrial laser technology we were fighting a media image of laser cutting, manifested in pseudo-technical articles trumpeting “Death rays benefit mankind!” I can’t tell you how many poorly informed freelance journalists used this tagline, much to my chagrin. I wasn’t much better; in my presentations I used that famous scene from the 1964 Goldfinger movie, where James Bond is threatened with a ray of light that is positioned to cut him in half. Many of you today don’t remember when the laser was a laboratory curiosity.
Fast forward to a recent Google alert I received which was a blog query about the use of a CD burner to cut materials. Several responses were, of course, negative. But one caused me to think about those early days. This response was, “The thought police should arrest you for this ridiculous notion.” A feeling I also had, until I thought about it a bit, especially from my death ray and James Bond experiences of the 1970s.
Those of us immersed in the technology tend to forget that most people still don’t understand the laser, and all they know about it is from the movies and video games where it is usually a weapon (there’s that death ray thing again). To accuse the Blog enquirer of stupidity is unfair. And perhaps this specific response can serve as a reminder to all of us technologists; never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.
Sometimes even we editors are our own worst enemies. It isn’t the laser that is doing the cutting, welding, etc. It’s the energy in the beam emanating from the laser that produces, when absorbed by a material, the heat required to cause some physical change in that material. Even we sometimes slip up and let a sentence that begins ”The laser welds at X feet per minute” slip through our editing eyes.
The ILS goal is to explain the technology in a user friendly manner. Count the equations we use in a year and you’ll see what I mean. We write for readers who, as end users, are seeking a better, more productive and profitable way to use technology to improve their company’s performance, so we do it in as clear and instructive a way as possible. Readers tell us we achieve our goals. But even with great Website metrics we know we are not reaching everyone.
So I will value the CD burner guy as part of an object lesson that there are still people out there who don’t know what in the world we are talking about.
More than 35 years ago I had the nerve to try, single handedly, to introduce laser cutting of sheet metal into North America. Bear with me before you say, “Here he goes again with the boring history of industrial laser technology.” Believe me there is an up-to-date message coming.
Back in the early 1970s laser cutting of sheet metal had been established in Germany and the United Kingdom through the efforts of researchers who had created the oxygen assist cutting technology, and a few far-sighted equipment suppliers; among which was a company for whom I then worked. With only 450 watts of CO2 laser power and a gas jet assist nozzle, Ferranti and Messer Greisheim were generating reams of data on the cutting of metals and non-metals.
I was charged with using this data to convince skeptical fabricating equipment buyers of the technical and cost benefits of this powerful new job shop tool. To do this, I bombarded industry with press releases, wrote technical articles, conducted workshops and spoke at technical conferences. All on the subject of laser beam cutting of sheet metals.
In those early days of industrial laser technology we were fighting a media image of laser cutting, manifested in pseudo-technical articles trumpeting “Death rays benefit mankind!” I can’t tell you how many poorly informed freelance journalists used this tagline, much to my chagrin. I wasn’t much better; in my presentations I used that famous scene from the 1964 Goldfinger movie, where James Bond is threatened with a ray of light that is positioned to cut him in half. Many of you today don’t remember when the laser was a laboratory curiosity.
Fast forward to a recent Google alert I received which was a blog query about the use of a CD burner to cut materials. Several responses were, of course, negative. But one caused me to think about those early days. This response was, “The thought police should arrest you for this ridiculous notion.” A feeling I also had, until I thought about it a bit, especially from my death ray and James Bond experiences of the 1970s.
Those of us immersed in the technology tend to forget that most people still don’t understand the laser, and all they know about it is from the movies and video games where it is usually a weapon (there’s that death ray thing again). To accuse the Blog enquirer of stupidity is unfair. And perhaps this specific response can serve as a reminder to all of us technologists; never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.
Sometimes even we editors are our own worst enemies. It isn’t the laser that is doing the cutting, welding, etc. It’s the energy in the beam emanating from the laser that produces, when absorbed by a material, the heat required to cause some physical change in that material. Even we sometimes slip up and let a sentence that begins ”The laser welds at X feet per minute” slip through our editing eyes.
The ILS goal is to explain the technology in a user friendly manner. Count the equations we use in a year and you’ll see what I mean. We write for readers who, as end users, are seeking a better, more productive and profitable way to use technology to improve their company’s performance, so we do it in as clear and instructive a way as possible. Readers tell us we achieve our goals. But even with great Website metrics we know we are not reaching everyone.
So I will value the CD burner guy as part of an object lesson that there are still people out there who don’t know what in the world we are talking about.
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