Maschinenfabrik Arnold is a member of the Laser Working Group and had the opportunity to take an interesting and highly informative tour of the Coherent company during a meeting of the working group. Our thanks go to everyone involved at Coherent and to the VDMA for organizing the meeting.
The sales team from the Maschinenfabrik Arnold GmbH under and +49 751 36169-199 for further information.
The VDMA Working Group Lasers and Laser Systems for Material Processing met for its spring meeting on May 28, 2024 in Hamburg at Coherent. The host, Dr. Stefan Ruppik, Vice President and General Manager CO2 Lasers Business Unit of Coherent and Deputy Chairman of the Board of the VDMA Working Group, welcomed the participants to Coherent for a day full of networking, information and discussions on the current economic situation and trends.
Mr. Friedrich, VDMA Foreign Trade, reported that some Asian countries had not yet been taken into account in the VDMA's demands for privileges for non-critical countries. The VDMA will follow up on this.
The results of the survey in the working group were presented. The majority of members expect stagnation in the development of incoming orders at home and abroad and sales in 2024 compared to 2023. The USA is the market that particularly supports incoming orders and the German market is seen as particularly difficult. Last but not least, the current challenges facing the laser industry were discussed. It became clear that the top challenges affect the entire industrial location, such as the high level of bureaucracy in Germany.
Mr. Bernhard Geis, VDW, gave an overview of the world market for laser machines based on the globally valid commodity number 845611 "Machine tools for removing all types of materials using laser beams". China holds the top positions in the categories of producer and exporter of laser machines. In terms of production, it is well ahead of Japan. Germany moved up to third place in 2023 and is now ahead of the USA. In terms of world exports, Germany is in second place behind China. In terms of world imports of laser machines, the USA overtook China in 2023.
Dr. Arnold Mayer, Optech Consulting, presented an outlook on the global market for laser sources and laser systems.
Mr. Geis provided information on the situation and prospects of the machine tool industry. The order intake of the German machine tool industry shows a significant slowdown in the course of 2023. Mr. Geis only predicted a noticeable improvement for next year.
Based on the white paper “OPC UA for Laser Systems”, the AG Laser has developed a companion specification with the ISW with the support of TRUMPF, Laserline and Coherent. The process was accompanied by an international group of companies that are active in the
OPC Foundation. The Companion Specification was finally published in February 2024 in the DIN-Anzeiger, as a VDMA standard sheet and at the OPC Foundation. The
Companion Specification OPC UA Laser Systems is currently being promoted, for example through the VDMA OPC UA Shopfloor Data Sessions, which can also be viewed on YouTube.
Prof. Arnold Gillner, Fraunhofer ILT, presented the Fraunhofer ILT and its activities as well as current developments in the laser industry. Laser applications for emerging markets such as hydrogen technology (lasers as a pioneer for fuel cells and electrolyzers), battery technology (laser processes in innovative battery production) and semiconductor processing were presented. Scaling up laser processes for this application is one of the important research fields.
Dr. Peter Soldan, VDI Technology Center, gave an overview of national and European research policy in the field of photonics and quantum technologies. Dr. Soldan presented various BMBF funding opportunities for the fields of photonics and quantum technologies. For example, there are recurring funding opportunities under BMBF funding such as the SME-innovative: Photonics and Quantum Technologies programs and
scientific preliminary projects on photonics and quantum technologies.
VDMA projects and support for members in the areas of Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), PFAS, Healthtech, Additive Manufacturing, quantum technologies and photonics as well as the VDMA young talent campaign were presented.
The meeting was rounded off with a presentation of Coherent including a company tour. The next meeting of the members of the VDMA Working Group Lasers and Laser Systems for Material Processing will take place on November 6, 2024 in Frankfurt am Main at the VDMA.