Russian-German laser network promotes lasers for manufacturing

The Network of Russian-German Laser Centers will be exhibiting at Photonics. World of Lasers and Optics from April 20th to 23rd, 2009 in Moscow. The five members of the expert network will present their services in the field of laser technology at a joint exhibition stand.

The individual Laser Innovation Technological Centers (LITC) from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kaluga, Rostov, and St. Petersburg are especially geared towards small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The idea behind the LITC is based on the network of laser testing and consulting centers, which was founded in Germany in 1996. Like in Germany, the Russian LITC aim at presenting their laser know-how to a wide industrial base, acting as a sort of "jump start" in laser technology for SMEs.

The five Russian centers will not only present the network at the Photonics fair in Moscow, but will also show uses of laser technology in industry, including samples that were manufactured in the course of the project.

The German project partner and stand organizer is the Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH), who is bringing the expertise they gained in the project in Germany into the LITC. "If the Russian network is as successful as the German network was," says Klaus Nowitzki of the LZH, "there will soon be a boom in the industrial use of lasers in Russia."

Apart from the LZH, the Bayerisches Laser Zentrum (BLZ) and further industrial partners are active in the project. The network of Russian-German Laser Centers is supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The LZH carries out research and development in the field of laser technology and is supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport of the State of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Verkehr).