Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
News
October 19, 2017 02:00 AM

Jenoptik shows photonics technologies in processing

David Vink
Plastics News Correspondent
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Jenoptik Automatisierungstechnik GmbH
    Jenoptik is showing laser-based cutting, welding and perforation systems for auto interior and exterior parts.

    Jena, Germany-based Jenoptik Automatisierungstechnik GmbH is presenting contact-free laser-based cutting, welding and perforation system solutions for automotive exterior and interior parts at Fakuma.

    These include 3D CO2 lasers with power up to 5 kilowatts, capable of cutting unpainted or Class A surface quality painted bumper fascia at up to 500 millimeters per second with +/-500 µm precision in Votan BIM (beam in motion) equipment.

    Votan BIM can also combine Votan W free-radiating diode laser welding machinery into a single unit with robot-guided laser welding heads cutting and invisibly welding bumper fascias.

    Jenoptik has supplied more than 200 such high-power automotive industry laser processing systems. Votan C BIM equipment is used to cut lightweight glass and carbon fiber-reinforced composite parts.

    The company featured in a 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers automotive innovation award for robotic cutting and welding by Magna Exteriors Inc. of the thermoplastic olefin bumper fascia of the 2017 General Motors Camaro ZL1.

    The process was praised for cutting the painted front side cleanly, for not requiring thicker wall sections to prevent weld read-through on the surface when welding rear support brackets, and the small equipment footprint due to cutting and welding functions combined in one unit. Unlike hydraulic punching and ultrasonic welding, the jury remarked that Jenoptik's welding process does not need contoured horns or punches.

    Jenoptik Automotive North America LLC in Rochester Hills, Mich., developed the equipment for Magna. In August, Jenoptik announced strengthening of U.S. activities with the acquisition of nearby Novi, Mich.-based Five Lakes Automation LLC, a company established in 2013 as a specialist in metal processing systems. Jenoptik said Five Lakes know-how would help it develop from a machine supplier into an integrated specialist for metal and plastic processing.

    Jenoptik says laser welding plastics involves faster cycle time and lower tool costs than ultrasonics.

    Jenoptik GmbH was established in 1991, after German reunification, through privatization of part of the former state-owned company VEB Carl Zeiss Jena.

    VEB Carl Zeiss Jena had 13 operations in the former East Germany with around 30,000 employees, while today's Jenoptik GmbH has 3,500 employees, 19.4 percent outside Germany.

    The publicly traded company expects to record sales of 800 million euros in 2018. America and the Asia/Pacific are described as growth regions that should account for 40 percent of sales in 2018, up from 34.4 percent in 2016.

    Polymer optics

    Although not a focus at Fakuma, another part of Jenoptik that processes plastics is the group's Triptis and Mühlhausen, Germany-based Jenoptik Polymer Systems GmbH subsidiary. It grew from the 2013 acquisition of Wahl Optoparts GmbH, a company that claims to have produced the first injection molded plastic lens in 1956.

    Jenoptik Polymer Systems produces a wide range of often micro-sized polymer optics parts and systems, as used in blood sugar measurement equipment, cameras, laptops, mobile phones, microscopes, machine vision and sensor systems and as automotive polymer light guides.

    Its 1-350 mm diameter polymer free-form lenses, finished with slow-tool servo rotary diamond grinding, are used in scanners and rotary encoders.

    Polymer optical parts produced include Fresnel lenses, double-sided micro-lens arrays with integrated supports and diffractive lenses with 1,000 lines per millimeter molded-in grid structures in depths of 10-400 nanometers and nano-structured non-reflective surfaces. The company says injection and injection/compression molding enable aspherical surface lenses to be produced at the same cost as spherical lenses.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Georgia home to new PET chemical recycling plant
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Tornadoes, severe weather impact Texas resin plants
    2
    Dow cutting 2,000 jobs, ‘evaluating ... global asset base'
    3
    Guilty plea in scheme involving $4.1M in fraudulent polymer sales
    4
    MAPP survey shows ‘struggling' plastics processing sector
    5
    Plastics firms work to eliminate PFAS use as pressure mounts
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified