Message from the President

“The 4th Wave is created by Developments of Laser Technology”

on August 15th, 2008
President of Nagoya Laser Technopole
Muneharu Kutsuna,Professor

　 Mr.Albin Toffler has published a fine book “The Third Wave “ in 1980. In the Book, The second wave has started from Industrial revolution in 18 century as A period of Mechanized society which is based on Mechanics. The third wave has started from the development of Computer after the Second World War as Information Society. The computer has been developed as a fundamental technology for our society. Namely, The mechatronics using a machine and an electron has changed our society. Then, from the end of 20 century to early 21 century Opto-Mechatronics era in which Machine, Electron and Photon are used has come. Photonics technology is based on laser technology. I call the revolution as “The Fourth Wave “. It has been developed on the bases of The First wave, Second Wave and Third wave.

　For instance, cast welding, brazing, and forge welding were used at ancient Egypt and China in the field of welding technology which is my specialty as first wave. In 1885,arc welding has been developed. In 1895 gas welding has been developed. In 1907, shielded metal arc welding has been developed. They were mechanized after 1930s during the second wave. The first ABC computer was developed by Pro. Athanasof in 1942. Arc welding robot has been developed by Kawasaki heavy Industries using a computer in 1974. Full automatic welding was developed. This means the third wave production. At present, more than 150 thousand welding robots are running in Japan through the night. From 1986, Roof panel and door panel of car body are welded by laser with optical fiber and robots in the world. This means Th fourth wave. Chrysler Motors has developed a remote laser system using a scanner with Galvano mirrors for car body panels. They have applied the system to weld the swing door of “JEEP” in production line. Remote laser welding robot has been developed by Benz and Nissan Motors. Super high welding speed at a range of 20m-40m can be obtained by a remote system. This is a good application of laser using the characteristic of light. I was surprised of laser technology. This is a big change in my experience on welding technology of 40 years.

　Laser Technology has been applied in various fields of industries such as nuclear energy industry, aerospace industry, Ocean industry, information and service industry, New material industry, Bio industry which are grown up recently on the base of science and technology in 20th century. The researchers and engineers have studied the science and technology at the university and work in the above industries. For instance, if you read the book ” Laser was born in such way” written by Prof.C.H.Towns,(Translated by Prof. Koichi Shimoda, Iwanami Pub.), you can understand the above matters. Various laser processing are used not only in the above industries, but also in other industries. For instance, Skin panel to stiffener of A380 airplane produced by Airbus Co.,Ltd are now laser welded using CO2 laser. Parts of F15 and F18 Fighters （made of Ti-6Al-4Valloy） are made using a laser 3D printer in place of Fa-parts machining.

　Laser peening is used to improve the fatigue strength of jet engine parts for passenger airplane and fight. Laser-arc hybrid welding is used to weld the light ship panels in European and USA shipyards. Laser processing can be applied from small parts like electronics part to large structures like ship and airplane of 30m in length. Laser applications are now studied through the world. Not only Europe and USA, but also developing companies like China, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, Taiwan, Korea which I have been. Laser technology is necessary to produce a car and electronic part in such countries. In the near future, development of ALIMS “Advanced Laser Integrated Manufacturing System” is become the key of fundamental research.