Naval Research Laboratory 25 kW laser welder

First non-classified 25 kW laser welder in the country, mid-1970s. Cited as a Navy investment that didn't pan out economically because shipyard work lacks both aerospace value-add and automotive volume.

Since you're in the Navy and interested in welding ships, among other things — why don't we use laser and electron beam in the shipyard? You don't have the production volume requirements. You don't have the value-added of an aerospace component most of the time. Sometimes the Navy does, and sometimes they use laser welding. The Navy has an applied physics research lab at Penn State University where they do all kinds of work on laser processing. The Navy had the first 25-kilowatt non-classified laser welder in the country, back in the mid '70s at the Naval Research Laboratory. Everybody wanted to use high-power lasers, which were coming into their own in the early '70s, for improved productivity.