Civan, Smart Move partner on welding and additive manufacturing technology

Jerusalem-based Civan Lasers and Smart Move GmbH, Garching, Germany, have partnered to provide new welding and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing technology. With Civan's dynamic beam laser (DBL) steered by Smart Move's laser scan head, welding and LPBF users can change beam shape orientation on-the-fly, enabling the use of asymmetrical beam shapes in complex geometries.

Civan's patented coherent beam combination modulates beam shape as desired at speeds of up to hundreds of megahertz without any moving parts. This entirely new category of lasers uses optical phased-array coherent beam-combining to merge many single-mode laser beams into a larger beam. Each laser's light overlaps with other beams in the far field, creating a diffraction pattern that makes it possible to manipulate the beam shape in real time.

Phase modulators control the individual beams, and the resulting interference pattern can be adjusted to maximize the beam spot position and produce various shape patterns inscribed by the beam's motion. In addition to beam shape, the DBL also enable control of shape frequency, shape sequence, and depth of focus.

"The integration of our dynamic beam laser with state-of-the-art scanner technology allows welding and LPBF customers to not only improve welding feed rates and additive manufacturing speeds, but also make previously impossible applications possible," said Civan CEO Dr. Eyal Shekel.