SL Laser was founded 1988 in Southeast Germany (Bavaria) in the town called Traunreut.
The headquarter is in Traunreut with offices in France and the USA. Further SL works with a lot of resellers and agents all over the world. In Traunreut SL is producing and developing the laser products and the software. With more than 7000 installations world wide SL Laser has the expertise to provide solutions for the different branches. With our engineers and services we can provide on site or remote assistance help.
SL starts with first installations on CNC router machines and later extended in the area of textile industries, especially on cutters for the nesting and later on the woodworking area, like truss, glue lam and timber frame manufacturing. Later prefab companies, manufacturers of precast parts saw the advantage of that system to use it on long tables or carousel systems to project shutters, inserts and frames on the tables and to show the workers the placement of that parts. The computer-controlled laser system with the corresponding software allows to transfer working plans and measuring points even for large-scale or angled mounting surfaces accurately as well as in a time and cost saving way. In the field of precast concrete construction the firmly fixed laser enables exact positioning of formwork, embedded parts and reinforecment
On 1999 and 2000 the company changed the owner. In that period SL starts a new era of business. The use of the laser systems in the composite industries. A lot of aircraft manufacturers and sub suppliers uses the laser projection system for the hand lay up process of prepreg material on tools. Later the saw the advantage of the visual help on assembly processes. The use of the laser head to position brackets, holders and click bond parts on different frame structures gave the companies the security to have a continuous workflow to eliminate mistakes and to project 1:1 CAD drawings on different surfaces.
The range of the branches that are using our laser positioning systems starts from a joinery goes to timberframe house producers, truss companies to precast concrete manufacturers and to the aerospace producers. A new market is the steel branch, especially companies that are using the welding process. There we show the position of the welding parts. The laser beam shows the operator the outline of the part in the right angle for the later welding.
Our main product is the laser head ProDirector 6+ and the small unit ProDirector XS2. We offer next to the hardware and application the software that the customer needs. That could be a software for 2D applications or for 3D. Next to that, we offer a simple to use software to create laser lines. That software is called SL Assembly.
The Laserpilot software makes it possible to generate a suitable surface for every application. As required, the modifications are discussed with the customer and placed on the software interface. This can be from calling the file, calibrating, rotating, turning, mirroring, moving in the x and y directions, as well as projecting at a different z-height. Projecting at a different Z-height has the advantage that the line on the upper edge of a stand or other component is better visible than at height 0, since shadowing may occur at height 0. In addition, the angle of the component can also be taken into account. Many of these functions can also be placed on the remote control so that the user can use these functions with one “click”. Laserpilot and SL2D software are used for 2D applications. The lasers in the precast plants save the users on site the time-consuming manual measurement of the positions for the formwork, empty pipes and built-in components. Directly 1: 1 from the CAD, the contours are projected on the tables. The projection makes it possible for the workers on site to use the components immediately.
The installation of the laser is fix above the table or on rails for long tables.
In the first variant of the installation, the laser is working on a carousel table system. The tables are moving under the laser place and the palette is under the laser. Depending on the program, different elements are projected. Formwork, built-in parts, magnetic lines, shuttering’s. These elements are projectable on different heights. Either the height is stored with the component or it is manually entered from the Laserpilot software, from SL Laser, via a dialog box or can be stored as a function button in the Laserpilot interface. The customer has the option to put these functions on the remote control.
The operation of a laser as a rail system is similar. In that case, the laser moves from position to position along the long table. SL Lasers experience in that case is unique and some of the customers uses that system with a length of 120m rails.
The advantage of this system is that a complete table can be predefined. The definition of the parts are made in a CAD-System and the laser can process project by project. Each stop at specific position for the laser will project all the elements that are used. These elements are on different layers, so that even in the case with a remote control or via the surface of the Laserpilot software the different components are projected.
The software imports all popular formats for projection. That could be DXF, DWG, ULB, HPGL. Customer-specific data formats are tested in-house and discussed with customer about the option of use that specific format with the Laserpilot Software. .
The laser systems also work together with known control systems.
The “ProDirector” is used in the areas of timber frame construction, nail trusses and glue trusses. In the timber frame construction, the frames of the walls and the nail lines are displayed. In the case of the nail binders, the nail plates, press blocks and wooden planks are projected.
SL3D software is for curved surfaces and used for assembly, welding parts and for the hand lay up process in the composite area. SL3D uses IGES, STEP or PLY files or you can use our own file format called SL. The SL3D software creates a protocol and electronic ply book for customers that need to have that for their own clients.
The same way of use is in the welding industry. The customer loads the CAD drawing and then define the lines that are to be projected. It is also possible to project labels or item numbers to simplify assembly. In principle, the system works like a plotter. In the CAD drawing, the component is placed in a defined coordinate system and the system then knows where to project the lines. In practice, SL-Laser prepares a component for projection together with the customer, and he does the others himself. If he needs further technical help, the company provides telephone assistance or support via remote connection, according to the customer’s wishes.
During assembly, the laser projects the edges of the component – such as the upper and lower edges. For positioning, the projected beam should be congruent with the component edge, then the part is correctly positioned. During positioning, we recommend to project at first the lower edge, then aligning the component with it and then fading in the upper edge for fine adjustment.
Then the employee switches to the next component with the remote control. With the new projection, the next component can now be added. This goes on until the complete workpiece is built. In addition, large monitors can be attached to each workstation, which show the worker the current work steps or components in an enlarged manner.
The laser is also used for quality control after assembly to see whether everything has really been welded on or something has been forgotten.
SL Assembly software is a software for customers that do not want to spend a lot of money in very expensive software to create laser lines for the laser head or to modify drawings. The customer can create a layer row to project in a tool the layers step by step with information on the screen. That could be PDF documents, remarks as a text or photos with description of the process.
Further, we have line and cross lasers in our product range, if the customer wants to project only a straight line or a cross for marking.
Our business range starts from woodworking area, goes to precast, textile, steel manufacturers, and goes to the aerospace area. Woodworking and precast are 2021 the areas that increases instead the area of aerospace is in the pandemic time decreasing.
Both, software and hardware is continuous updated and the development of new functions are implemented very quick in the systems, so that customers have always an up to date system. That could be done individually for one customer or for all.
Our most innovative product is our engineering. We are able to offer for each customer an individual way to use the laser with the software. That could be a rail system with the laser or a mobile workstation or use the laser heads as a single head and on big tools with other lasers as multiple head systems with tilting functions. SL offers steel construction for customers that need a stable basis for the laser heads.
2021 will show us how good we are in that special time.
