Milpitas, Calif., October 22, 2014 – JDSU (NASDAQ: JDSU) today announced that it has collaborated with Amada, a leading manufacturer of machine tools for metal fabrication, to develop a new direct diode laser (DDL) that provides up to 2 kilowatts of output power. The DDL has been integrated into a new sheet metal cutting system from Amada called ExC and is being demonstrated at the EuroBLECH event at Stand D06/F06 in Hall 12 in Hanover Germany this week.

Direct diode lasers have predominately been used for welding or for treating the surface of metals during manufacturing processes. The advanced DDL design created by JDSU and Amada is one of the first solutions that leverages this technology to cut metal.

Direct diode lasers are gaining momentum over CO2-based cutting systems for metal processing because of advantages they provide that include higher cutting speeds, improved cutting quality, increased energy efficiency and lower maintenance requirements. These benefits in turn result in lower overall costs for metal processing manufacturers.

According to industry analyst firm Strategies Unlimited, direct diode lasers are growing as one of the solutions to replace traditional CO2 lasers for metal processing and are projected to represent $237M in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 15.3 percent from 2012 – 2017.

“For more than seven years, JDSU and Amada have collaborated on the industry’s most innovative laser solutions,” said Alan Lowe, president of CCOP at JDSU. ”The new ExC platform complements the fiber laser engine portfolio we’ve developed with Amada to provide manufacturers with a diverse range of solutions that meet their various metal processing needs.”
Executives from both Amada and JDSU unveiled a prototype of the ExC cutting machine at EuroBLECH yesterday. Benefits of the new system include:

Increased energy efficiency. The new DDL engine significantly increases the efficiency, or the percent of electrical power that is converted into usable light, during the metal cutting process.

Faster cutting capability & improved cutting quality. ExC cuts mild steel sheets 30 percent faster and cuts aluminum sheets 75 percent faster compared to traditional CO2 systems. It also provides improved smoothness to the cut surface by an order of magnitude.

Compact size and reduced costs. Maintenance and power costs are dramatically reduced with the new DDL engine due to its compact and integrated structure and ability to use less power. According to Amada, this translates into approximately a 50 percent reduction in power costs during sheet metal processing.