A unique Christmas present has arrived in Prague after a 1,000 mile journey across Europe. The special delivery from the CLF is ten million pounds worth of laser equipment for the most advanced high power laser of its kind in the world.
The new laser technology for HiLASE, a project in the Czech Republic tagged ‘New lasers for industry and research’, will benefit industry and science in areas ranging from welding to testing the resistance of optical materials. The setup will provide a laser capability significantly more powerful, efficient and stable than current systems across Europe.
The contract won by the Central Laser Facility was for a brand new pulsed laser system offering both high energy and high repetition rates. Until now there have either been high energy lasers which are limited to the order of pulses per hour or systems that produce many pulses per second but only at relatively low energy levels. The combination of the two paves the way for a broad field of new applications.
Director of the CLF, John Collier, said: “We are moving into new exciting times in the field of laser research. Being able to combine high energy and high repetition rates is a major step forward. Now proven at this current 100 J energy level it has the potential to be scaled to even higher energies opening up a whole new realm of possibilities for both industry and research. We are proud to have delivered our system to our partners in the Czech Republic”.
Receiving the equipment in Prague, Tomas Mocek, the Facility Director of HiLASE, said:
"I am truly delighted to confirm that the 100 J DPSSL system was safely delivered to the HiLASE facility in Dolni Brezany, Czech Republic. It is currently the most advanced high power laser of this kind in the world and our dream became reality. I would like to express my big thanks to our colleagues at STFC for their hard, professional, and fully devoted work on this challenging project. The best part of this success story is that HiLASE and STFC shall continue over the next years in strategic collaboration and in building solid academic and industrial user community for the 100 J laser”.
The system developed by scientists from the Centre for Advanced Laser Technology and Applications (CALTA), which is part of the CLF, is so complex it has taken six weeks just to decommission and deliver it to Prague.
The 10 million pounds worth of laser equipment is carefully unloaded on arrival in the Czech Republic. Credit: STF
STFC’s John Hill who has been in charge of this process, said:
“The deliveries included seven optical tables totalling 18 metres in length and weighing 1.4 tonnes each. The overall system weighs 20 tonnes. The final delivery to arrive in the Czech Republic which sees the completion of this project was just one part of a much bigger system. Overall 2 HGVs and 3 specialist RAL transports were used to move the system. The decommissioning and transport programme was extremely challenging and has taken six weeks to complete. Staff from STFC’s Central Laser Facility and the RAL transport section were engaged at every stage and completed all tasks to the planned schedule”.
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