Abstract: Since graduating from the Ph.D. program at Dartmouth in 1995, I have been involved with many aspects of industrial laser process R&D, product design and development, new product introductions, marketplace seminars, team leadership, and customer relations.  I will present an overview of Hypertherm, what Hypertherm does, my role at Hypertherm, and the strengths and gaps a graduate education provides for a transition to the industrial workplace.

During my tenure at Hypertherm, I have focused on the process of industrial laser cutting whereby a high power laser (1-6kW) is used to cut primarily metals in the 0.5-32mm thickness range.  This process has many unique considerations that require a multidisciplinary understanding of optics, laser material interactions, heat transfer, chemical kinetics, fluids, and metallurgy.  Since 2008, Hypertherm has developed an industrial fiber laser product offering which offers unique benefits over the historical CO2 industrial laser incumbent and augments the capabilities of Hypertherm's core plasma business.  This development has highlighted many challenges of moving from the lab to prototype to industrial production and these will be discussed.