Moving to very high power lasers for welding metals, like aluminium in car production, has some big benefits, as Greg Blackman finds out

High-power blue diode lasers are becoming available that have significant advantages over traditional infrared lasers for machining metals. Greg Blackman investigates

Greg Blackman investigates the advances being made in direct diode lasers and asks whether these systems can compete with fibre lasers

Tom Eddershaw finds that high-power diode lasers are now available for industrial applications, while their lower-power equivalents are used to great effect in outdoor light shows