Top ten keywords in the global laser industry

Top ten keywords in the global laser industry

1. Acquisition

As the "living fossils" of China's laser industry, Chutian Laser and Tuanjie Laser have fulfilled their dream of joining hands for nearly ten years after their successful merger. The road to the construction of China's laser industry of hundreds of billions of aircraft carriers began. The strong combination of Coherent Laser's acquisition of Rofin Laser will make Coherent a leader in the global laser and optoelectronic technology fields and solutions. Bystronic Laser acquired 51% of Dineng Laser's shares to further expand into the Chinese market. Han's Laser's acquisition of Spain's Aritex Cading and Shenyang Servet has further strengthened its business in the aerospace, robotics, and automotive fields. It also acquired Canadian specialty optical fiber company Coractive High-Tech Inc. It will help the development of Han's laser fiber laser generator, and also help promote the company's business expansion in the field of telecommunications and communication sensors. MKS Instrument's acquisition of Newport...Of course, the acquisition cases in the industry are far more than that. There are also NKT Photonics' acquisition of ultrafast fiber laser manufacturer Fianium, laser equipment manufacturer Amada's acquisition of MacGregor welding system company, Zhengye Technology's 450 million acquisition of Xuanshuo Many large and small acquisitions such as Optoelectronics, Siemens, Oona Technology, GE, Yexing Technology, etc.

"Acquisitions are available every year, and this year is particularly numerous"! It can be seen that this year's laser industry is unusual, and multiple heavyweight acquisitions also reflect the opportunities and challenges faced by the laser industry. After the giants join forces, the competitive landscape of the global laser industry will also undergo a major change!

2. Laser display

In recent years, the domestic laser display industry has ushered in an "explosive period." Laser display has also quickly entered the "product period" from the "concept period".

Since the beginning of this year, the laser display field has been extremely active, with more and more new entrants, and new products emerging in endlessly. Many companies such as Guangfeng, Simeile, Optoma, Nuts, Hisense, Changhong, etc. have successively launched their core lasers. Display products. For home use, Hisense’s world’s first DLP ultra-short throw 4K laser TV achieves the 4K resolution of laser projection for the first time, and has taken a big step in home promotion. As a veteran home appliance company, with the addition of Changhong, it will undoubtedly provide a "cardiotonic agent" for the large-screen laser display market. Changhong's rich experience in home appliances may bring more changes to laser displays entering the home in the future. In addition, laser displays also perform well in the fields of education, engineering, cinema, and business. 2016 is also known as the "first year" of laser TV.

3. Laser 3D printing

Chapter 5 of the State Council’s "Thirteenth Five-Year" Science and Technology Innovation Plan-Building an internationally competitive modern industrial technology system "Development of Intelligent Green Service Manufacturing Technology" column VI proposes: Carrying out laser additive manufacturing control of high-performance metal structural parts Research on basic theories such as nature, overcome high-efficiency and high-precision laser additive manufacturing cladding nozzles and other core components, develop metal, non-metal and bioprinting typical process equipment, and build a relatively complete additive manufacturing technology innovation and R&D system. From the national policy level, the importance of laser additive manufacturing technology to the development of China's manufacturing technology has been reaffirmed.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been continuous achievements in the field of laser 3D printing. Wuhan National Laboratory of Optoelectronics (in preparation) completed the world’s largest efficiency and size of high-precision metal parts laser 3D printing equipment, "large metal parts high-efficiency laser selective area melting additive manufacturing key technology and equipment (Commonly known as laser 3D printing technology)"; China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation First Academy 211 Factory completed the laser synchronous powder feeding 3D printing technology for the first time on the key components of the large main load-bearing section, using laser synchronous powder feeding 3D printing technology Successfully realized the rapid development of the long March 5 rocket titanium alloy core stage binding bearing test piece; the technicians of the 306 Institute of the Third Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology of China used laser 3D printing to trial-produce an integrated titanium alloy structure inlet with a large temperature gradient; Yao Jianhua The team put forward the "basic research on metal additive manufacturing technology based on supersonic laser deposition", and obtained the necessary process and quality control methods for realizing additive manufacturing, breaking the bottleneck of existing metal parts additive manufacturing technology and many other major research and development breakthroughs Promote the further development of laser 3D printing technology. At the same time, a number of national special projects related to laser additive manufacturing were also launched this year. It can be seen that the application of laser 3D printing technology is gradually becoming mature.

4. Ten thousand watts

In the field of fiber laser in China, the 10,000-watt level is a milestone.

With the large-scale application of fiber lasers, the process of localization of fiber lasers has been accelerating. Through the efforts in recent years, some domestic enterprises have become extremely competitive in the low- and medium-power field, and the foreign monopoly structure has begun to loosen.

After the successful development of the 10,000-watt fiber laser by Wuhan Ruike Company, the price of imported products was once forced to drop from 5 million yuan per unit to more than 3 million yuan. Recently, news came that the high-energy laser technology team of the United Nations University of Defense Science and Technology of Tianjin Dongfang Rui Rai Company, the Optoelectronics Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a central enterprise in Tianjin, successfully developed an industrial-grade fiber laser with a power of 12,000 watts. The comprehensive performance index has reached the international first-class level. A few days ago, Wuhan Ruike Fiber Laser Technology Co., Ltd. announced that the first domestic 20,000 watt fiber laser developed by the company is in the installation stage and is expected to come out and put into use in the first half of 2018. At that time, the pattern of fiber lasers will be another situation.

5. Intelligent manufacturing

With the development of information technology and robotics, intelligent manufacturing has become an inevitable trend in the development of manufacturing. As an advanced manufacturing technology, laser processing itself integrates multiple technologies such as optics, machinery, electrical automation, and has the natural genes for intelligent manufacturing. Therefore, the laser is an indispensable "vanguard" for the development of the intelligent manufacturing industry.

Recently, at the 2016 Global Laser and Intelligent Manufacturing Development Trend Summit Forum, Han's Laser, Beihang University, Jilin University, and Hunan University jointly established a strategic cooperation agreement for the construction of a laser industry scientific research cluster, Baoan International Laser Equipment Industry Base, Han's Laser Intelligent Equipment Group Officially unveiled. This is a practice of jointly building an intelligent manufacturing industry base between regions and enterprises, and successful cooperation experience will likely be extended to other regions. At the same time, Wuhan Optics Valley relies on its advantages in laser technology to focus on promoting the intelligent transformation of production-oriented manufacturing to service-oriented manufacturing. Cangzhou, Anshan, and Wenzhou focus on building laser technology industrial parks and use laser manufacturing to promote local intelligent manufacturing. Development. The intelligent transformation of these industrial clusters is the driving force for the development of the laser industry, and the laser industry is expected to usher in a new round of growth.

6. Lidar

Lidar and unmanned driving are both "running" this year. Although unmanned driving does not only rely on lidar, lidar has the advantages of high ranging accuracy, strong directionality, fast response, and is not affected by ground clutter, and can effectively provide information required by vehicle decision-making and control systems. Currently, the most effective solution for unmanned driving environment sensing.

As more and more car manufacturers focus on the research and development of unmanned driving, the field of lidar has also set off a wave of enthusiasm. Although the current lidar still has many deficiencies such as being affected by the weather, high cost, and large amount of information difficult to handle, its market potential is still promising. At present, leading foreign companies include Velodyne, Quanergy, LeddarTech, Continental, etc., and domestic companies such as Beike Tianhui, Hesai Technology, Silan Technology, Huada Kejie, and Sagitar. In the future, solid-state, low-cost, high-reliability, and miniaturization will still be the development trend of lidar.

7. Fiber laser

Including 2016, fiber lasers have become the fastest growing field.

In recent years, the application markets in China, South Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia are pushing the Asia-Pacific region toward the world's largest industrial laser market. This benefits from the growth of emerging semiconductor lasers and fiber lasers, and fiber lasers will achieve a market size of US$1.9 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5%. At the same time, my country's successful development of 12,000 watt fiber lasers and 20,000 watt fiber lasers has enabled the technology to keep up with the leading level. At the application level, more companies have begun to focus on subdivided applications, such as sapphire substrate cutting, laser surface modification, high-reflection material processing, etc. This will have a huge boost for the development of the fiber laser application market. Moreover, with the successful development of high-power laser chips, high-power pump couplers and other devices, my country has an independent production capacity of medium-power fiber lasers, and has reached the international advanced level. In the "13th Five-Year" scientific and technological innovation plan, it is proposed to develop high-reliability and long-life laser core functional components, domestic advanced lasers and high-end laser manufacturing process equipment, and develop advanced laser manufacturing application technologies and equipment. Driven by relevant policies, the process of localizing fiber laser core components will be faster.

8. Ultra-strong and ultra-short laser

The ultra-strong and ultra-short laser is considered to be the brightest light source known to mankind. It is the latest development frontier and competitive key field of international laser technology. It has great scientific and technological significance and application value. Since the beginning of this year, my country has made a series of significant progress in the field of ultra-short and super-strong lasers, demonstrating my country's leading position in the field of major scientific and technological research.

In March, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully produced antimatter, an ultrafast positron source, using a super-strong and ultra-short laser. This is the first time that Chinese scientists have successfully produced antimatter with a laser. This discovery will have important applications in the fields of non-destructive detection of materials, laser-driven electron-positron colliders, and cancer diagnosis.

In September, Shanghai Zhangjiang Comprehensive National Science Center Super Short Laser Experiment Facility (SULF) successfully achieved 5 petawatts (one petawatt equals 1,000 trillion watts) laser pulse output, reaching the international leading level.

At the same time, the research team led by Xu Zhizhan and Li Ruxin, the State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, used a cascaded wake field driven by a super-strong and ultra-short laser to accelerate the acquisition of high-performance, high-energy electron beams and laser collisions to produce ultra-high collisions. Brightness quasi-monochromatic MeV-level gamma-ray source, its highest peak brightness is more than one order of magnitude higher than the brightness of similar gamma-ray sources reported internationally, and it is higher than the peak brightness of traditional gamma-ray sources in the same energy region 100,000 times.

9. Picosecond laser

In recent years, ultra-fast laser technology has been gradually applied to the field of precision processing, and its "cold processing" advantage has become increasingly prominent. At present, femtosecond lasers have opened up some applications in medical and scientific research. In the field of industrial applications, due to factors such as stability and power, it is still in the R&D stage. On the contrary, picosecond lasers are more mature, and have been widely used in many fields such as micro-nano material processing, 3C processing, and precision medical equipment, and are becoming the core of ultrafast laser industrial processing applications.

This year, Min Dayong, chairman of Huari Precision Laser Co., Ltd., as the project leader, declared a national key R&D project-"Industrial-grade picosecond/femtosecond laser key technology research and industrialization" after being approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Wuhan started, the project received 51.18 million yuan of special funds from the central government, and the project implementation cycle is four years. This is a major step for my country to promote the independent R&D and industrialization of picosecond lasers. In addition, a large number of domestic companies are also committed to the development of picosecond laser research and application technology. The future market is worth looking forward to.

10. Made in China 2025

"Made in China 2025" has been popular in the manufacturing industry since its introduction. Its core points are "innovation-driven, quality first, green development, structural optimization, and talent-oriented". At present, various manufacturing fields such as laser and 3D printing are actively exploring ways to integrate with "Made in China 2025".

During the 2016 National Public Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week, Premier Li Keqiang stopped several times during the inspection of Han's Laser, and asked very carefully about all the laser processing equipment. He encouraged employees to say: "You have developed China's traditional equipment manufacturing industry from backwardness to transformation and upgrading, and even advanced, so that China's equipment manufacturing industry has new prospects. It can be said that you are an iconic and representative industry. It also shows that'Made in China 2025' has great promise and we must shine a light on your hands." The Premier's remarks affirmed the important role of laser as an advanced processing technology in "Made in China 2025".