October 2024

 

One of the many joys of inventing is finding a fun new tool that helps you with your work.  Local inventor Matt Thie told us about his latest favorite – a now-affordable (~$5K) fiber laser welder that he bought on eBay (eg, see here).

Mr. Thie bought the laser to help him clean some old car parts.  Laser ablation focused a beam of light (1064 nm wavelength) on rust to rapidly heat, vaporize, and push the rust from the underlying steel.  In just a few minutes his car parts looked new with little or no damage to the steel.  Compare that to the time and mess involved in removing rust with chemicals, grinding, or sandblasting.

Mr. Thie told us about other uses for this laser.  It works on a variety of materials, including brick, metal (aluminum, copper, iron, nickel alloys, steel [carbon, galvanized, or stainless]), paper, plastic, and wood.  It removes not only rust, but also other oxides, paint, oil, ink, and grease and strips varnish from wood cabinets.  Due to its highly focused light beam, this laser provides very clean and precise welds (even of dissimilar metals), replacing argon or electric arc welding and operating 4-5 times faster than TIG welding.  It cuts through 1/4-inch steel and, for the adventurous, can cut down trees.

Thank you, Mr. Thie, for sharing your enthusiasm with us!