Civan’s OPA 6 Weld, an entirely new class of laser that modulates beam shape at MHz rates without any moving parts, has received the 2022 Prism Award for Industrial Lasers

Civan Lasers has received the prestigious 2022 Prism Award in the industrial lasers category. Civan was recognized for its OPA 6 Weld, a 7–14 kW single-mode CW dynamic beam laser (DBL) last week following a festive reception during SPIE Photonics West, by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and Photonics Media. Based on Civan’s patented coherent beam combination, the DBL modulates beam shape as desired at speeds 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 allows manipulation of 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 controlling beam shape, Civan’s DBL also enables control of shape frequency, shape sequence, and depth of focus. The ability to control these parameters is a powerful tool for optimization of evaporation in the capillary, flow in the molten pool, and solidification of the melt for any laser materials processing application. Such control does away with pore, spatter, and crack formation while increasing feed rates and speeds in welding and additive manufacturing applications.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious award, as it substantiates that Civan Lasers is the only company in the world that has been able to commercialize coherent beam combining technology for high-power applications,” says Civan CEO Dr. Eyal Shekel. “It also validates the strong impact that our dynamic beam-shaping lasers will have in the industrial laser materials processing market by helping to not only improve welding feed rates and additive manufacturing speeds but also to make new applications possible.”