The Revolution of Beam Shaping for Additive Manufacturing with Alex Kingsbury of nLIGHT

Additive Snack · 26 Nov 2024 · 1h 05m · Episode 7

What this episode covers

Alex Kingsbury, AM Market Development Manager at nLIGHT, explains how beam shaping technology, specifically the AFX laser, revolutionizes additive manufacturing by manipulating laser profiles from Gaussian to ring shapes. She details how this innovation stabilizes the melt pool, reduces spatter and porosity, and delivers 2x to 8x productivity gains without sacrificing material properties. Kingsbury also discusses nLIGHT's vertical integration, the transition from defense to commercial applications, and the industry's shift toward larger, multi-laser systems enabled by 2kW beam-shaped lasers.

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