Steel Kirigami: Exploring Structures Through Advanced Manufacturing
Spin-Valence is a kirigami (cut and fold) space-frame manufacturing system that was developed by an architect and researcher. This work employs advanced manufacturing in steel in order to anticipate the future of how buildings could be structured and constructed. She will present speculative work that employs full-scale structural mockups using CNC plasma and laser cutting of sheet steel and will discuss the ways that this work and similar work could influence construction in the future.
Emily Baker - University of Arkansas
Laser Cutting with High Power Ring-Mode Beams in Combination with a Large-Scale Zoom Functionality
Increasing demand in cutting various materials with steadily increasing thickness ranges is driving requirements for greater flexibility in shaping the laser beam profile. New laser sources enter the market with different technologies to improve the cut quality and speed by applying non-gaussian beam profiles. This presentation shows the improvements in cutting performance of high-power ring-mode beams in combination with a large scale zoom functionality of the cutting head. In addition to adjusting the beam shape, the size of the center beam and the rings can be adjusted continuously to tailor the laser beam to the process and deliver superior cutting results. Furthermore, an approach of homogenizing the beam profile between the laser and the process is presented. The inserting of a mode scrambler in the beam delivering fiber cable homogenizes the power distribution and avoids directional dependencies in the cutting process.
Nico Baumbach - II-VI HIGHYAG