Education of Industrial Users of Laser Materials Processing Technology

The extensive use of high power laser for materials processing in industry has brought a new era in manufacturing technology. High speed processing with low heat input and high precision offers up-to-date manufacturing. New processes like laser hybrid welding are developed and introduced in industry. But the potential of laser technology is not by far fully utilised due to lack of knowledge of laser processes in the industrial environment.The national Swedish programme, "proDesign - Expert competence in industrial product development and materials processing", offers new opportunities of providing education for industrial managers, designers and manufacturing people. Within the scope of proDesign, Luleå University of Technology has developed several new courses in laser material processing for people in industry. These courses have now uccessfully been introduced to the Swedish market and this paper presents experiences from this work.Godkänd; 2005; 20070327 (cira