IPG Photonics Corporation (www.ipgphotonics.com) and Reliant Technologies, Inc. (www.reliant-tech.com) have introduced a new industrial scanning system for high speed spot welding and drilling that the companies say can increase manufacturing productivity and the performance of products made with it. The new scanning system combines proprietary technology developed by Reliant for original use within their medical device products with IPG's industrial fiber lasers.

It provides the ability to rapidly dwell at a particular location for a programmed period of time with frequencies of up to 5,000 times per second. Also, the locations can be non-sequential to ensure thermal management on the material to be processed. The companies said these features allow the scanner to bring the precision of thermal heat management from medical device technology to industrial applications such as high speed spot welding, high speed percussion drilling and material processing for computer, consumer electronics and aerospace markets.