Is China ready for the optical age?

Throughout the history of human civilization,scientific and technological revolution"is a revolutionary force that plays a driving role in history".It mainly promotes the development of society by promoting the change of people's mode of production,way of life and way of thinking.

From primitive society to today,human society can be roughly divided into agricultural civilization and industrial civilization.According to Marx's philosophical system of historical materialism,"the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production is the basic driving force to promote the development of human society",and he believes that the three elements of the productive forces are respectively:the means of labor,mainly the means of production;Objects of labor introduced into the production process;Workers with certain production experience and labor skills.The author objectively believes that the core content of labor materials and labor objects should be the mode of production.

From the perspective of production mode,the agricultural civilization has influenced human society for thousands of years with the production mode of"force processing".The industrial civilization worthy of human pride has also experienced three technological and industrial revolutions.The author objectively classifies it from the perspective of processing methods and considers them as:fire processing,electric processing and light processing.Why do they do that?

In summary,the three major symbols of the scientific and technological industrial revolutions are:the first is the widespread application of steam engine in the 1760s,and the emergence of fire processing production tools;The second was the widespread use of electricity in the 1870s,the advent of electrical processing tools for production;The third time is the 1950s in atomic energy technology,computer technology,space technology,laser technology and biological technology and other fields made a major breakthrough,the emergence of optical processing production tools.

In processing the third industrial revolution in the form of light,by a new type of laser nuclear fusion technology(atomic energy technology),photon computer technology(computer technology),laser communication technology,laser measurement technology,laser processing technology,laser material manufacturing technology,laser biology technology and so on,is driving the international economic structure adjustment.The development of science and technology has made the economies of all countries in the world more interdependent,and the competition in science and technology has further widened the economic gap between developed countries and many developing countries.Therefore,the third scientific and technological revolution is both an opportunity and a challenge for every developing country,especially China.

Laser is since the 20th century,after atomic energy,computer,semiconductor,human another major invention,known as the"fastest knife","the most accurate ruler","the brightest light"and"strange laser".The principle of the laser was discovered by the famous American physicist Albert Einstein as early as 1916,but it was not until 1960 that the first laser was successfully manufactured.

Laser emerges at the historic moment under the background of theoretical preparation and the urgent need of production practice.As soon as it comes out,it develops very fast.Laser can enable people to effectively use unprecedented advanced processing methods,to obtain unprecedented benefits and results,thus promoting the rapid development of productivity.

Laser has played three irreplaceable roles in the development of human society:

1.It has fully penetrated into the interdisciplinary disciplines.Has given rise to optical fiber communication,laser spectroscopy,laser rangefinder,laser radar,laser marking,laser cutting,laser welding,laser weapon,CD,laser pointer,laser vision correction,laser cosmetology,laser scanning,laser mosquito killer,laser communication,laser biological and medical laser,laser microfabrication,laser 3 d printing and so on dozens of new disciplines.

2.It plays an irreplaceable role in the economic development of various countries.In 2010,the United States assessed the economic contribution of laser technology in industrial manufacturing,transportation,biomedical,information and communication and other fields,which reached 7.5 trillion US dollars.

We will play an irreplaceable role in the modernization of national security and national defense around the world.

The laser is composed of excitation source,working material and resonant cavity.Along with the advance of laser technology for more than half a century,especially in the work material selection,cavity,and the structure design of excitation source,cooling,cooling technology,optical fiber coupling technology constantly improving,laser coals have also become more efficient and better beam quality,output power is larger,transmission is more flexible and has higher stability and reliability.

Laser also from the beginning of the low-power solid laser,experienced the high-power CO2 laser,lamp pumped laser,solid-state YAG laser,DISK laser,fiber laser to semiconductor laser;The output mode also ranges from optical output,guide arm to fiber.

At present,the industry recognized high power Disk laser and fiber laser is the mainstream of the market,high power,high brightness semiconductor laser is the future.In particular,these fiber output high-power laser and intelligent robots,automated production lines,big data processing technology database and system solution simulation database,will lead the world's advanced manufacturing industry,and will have a profound impact on the world's industrial intelligent process.

For example,laser welding,laser cutting,automatic loading and unloading,automatic painting workstations and automatic production lines in the field of automotive parts and vehicles;Workstations and production lines for laser composite welding,laser blanking and automatic handling of parts in the construction machinery industry;Laser dimensional processing,laser welding and laser cutting in the medical device industry;Laser Tailor Welding Production Line of Different Thickness in Metallurgical Industry,Online Tailor Welding Production Line of Steel Coils,Online Laser blanking System,Laser Remanufacturing Equipment of Metallurgical Parts Rolls,etc.;Laser welding,laser cutting and laser remanufacturing of all kinds of equipment in the petrochemical industry;Laser welding,3D laser cutting,laser additive manufacturing and so on in aerospace field;Laser dimension processing production line(laser marking,laser marking,laser etching,laser punching,etc.)for electronics,photovoltaic,display panel and other industries

As the core processing mode of advanced manufacturing industry,laser processing technology is gradually replacing the traditional processing and manufacturing mode by virtue of its advantages of high efficiency,high quality,small pollution,energy saving and environmental protection,and high degree of automation.

At present,Germany,Japan and the United States become the leading countries in the laser industry,and have produced such as TRUMPF,ROFEN,coherent,spectral physics,IPG and other famous companies,almost monopolized the international market.In 2013,China's laser market has exceeded 20 billion yuan,the annual growth rate in recent years is about 18%~22%,has become the world's largest laser processing product market.

At the same time,with the continuous development of China's major infrastructure and major science and technology projects,laser technology is penetrating and spreading to many fields,and the market potential is huge.However,most of China's laser enterprises lack of independent innovation and core technology,most of them adopt imported lasers and parts for simple and extensive integration;The basic level of laser processing industry is relatively low,is facing the situation of rapid development and continuous innovation.In the future,by enhancing the independent research and development ability of core devices and improving the technical level of laser processing technology,China's laser enterprises will provide more development opportunities.

Human society will enter the world of light.The third industrial revolution in the form of optical processing is coming.Is China ready?