LASHARE prepares for first annual meeting and public workshop

Since September 2013, LASHARE has initiated 14 Laser Based Equipment Assessments (LEA’s). Following this first stage of the assessment, where users, suppliers and research partners agreed on objectives and concrete measures, first approaching solutions from the implementation phase can be seen. As such, some LEA’s exchanged equipment for preliminary testing at the user sites. Newly developed laser sources were dispatched, new processing heads have been tested and work piece samples have been exchanged for analysis.

On the first yearly meeting, all partners from the user side, the supplier side and the research side will engage discussing outcomes, benefits and improvements. Back to back with the AIMEN Laser Application Days, LASHARE will hold an internal review, continuing with a public workshop. This workshop will address cross sectional activities (CSA’s) in the area of automation and standardization.

Automation has been identified by the consortium to play an important role in developing and selling laser based equipment. Some of the partners see interfacing to external automation solutions as a burden due to the diversity of industrial environments. In some cases, efforts for customer site integration even exceed the sales price of the product. It is envisaged that activities such as the implementation of modular interfaces or agreed protocols for control signals could increase the economic efficiency in this area on both, the supplier and the user side.

Innovative laser based equipment for manufacturing comes with new features and new performance options. Hand-guided laser processing systems for example require rules for safe handling to make it to the shop floor. In such cases, even normative activities might be required to ensure that also insurance companies accept the operation of such laser based equipment.

Both workshops are aimed at identifying current requirements, needs of users and suppliers and an international exchange on these topics.

The results of this meeting will help LASHARE to implement topics for the Open Call which is planned to be issued between late 2014 and early 2015. It will offer new teams of suppliers and users to join the project with relevant European topics in the area of laser based equipment. Currently, LASHARE calls for experts which shall evaluate future proposals. Further details can be found on the LASHARE website at www.lashare.eu.