Laser Institute of America (LIA) hosted the 29th International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics (ICALEO) in Anaheim, California during the last week of September. ICALEO brought together a few hundred attendees including academics, researchers, engineers, end-users, and technicians, from every industry. All made their way out to California to sweat in the record setting 113° weather on the first day of the conference. Needless to say, the air conditioning didn’t get a break that day.
ICALEO incorporated three conferences including: Laser Materials Processing, Laser Microprocessing, and Nanomanufacturing, all with individual sessions covering a broad range of topics. No matter your industry or applications, chances are there were a host of relative presentations, many of which are on the leading edge of innovation. An added advantage to ICALEO is the social events which are great networking opportunities to meet other industry players.
EWI was represented by three members of the Laser Processing team: Stan Ream, Mark Schimming and myself. Stan gave a captivating presentation on a Polygon Scanner for Laser Paint Stripping – A custom laser scanner designed by EWI and Craig Walters Association (CWA). There were also interesting talks on Hybrid Laser-Arc Welding, Laser Additive Manufacturing, and High Power Optics to name a few. These are also a few areas in which EWI is continuing to advance processing capabilities. Next year’s ICALEO conference will move to the East Coast and will again reveal the latest topics and research in the laser world.