In 2022, the CLP had the pleasure of welcoming four new members, including BBW LASERTECHNIK.
We asked a few questions to Eric PUNZEl, process engineer and development manager within the company.
Good reading !
Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
Thank
you for the opportunity to introduce myself, my name is Eric Punzel and
37 years old. I am process engineer and head of development at BBW
Lasertechnik. I am living and working near Rosenheim, very close to the
Bavarian mountains – perfect views from home and work onto it. At BBW, I
am supporting feasibility studies for laser material processing tasks,
manage national and international research projects, realize technology
scouting and train laser science to other people.
After my
master’s degree in physical engineering 4,5 years ago I switched from
the Laser Institute Mittweida to my actual company as a process
engineer. One of my main tasks in the first year was the implementation
of ultrashort pulsed laser technology into the company, which adapted
very well since then! Later I focussed more onto laser welding topics.
With the support of my company, I was able to qualify as an
international welding engineer at the beginning of this year. Soon after
I became head of development.
Can you present your company and its specialty?
Of course. The company BBW Lasertechnik is located in Prutting, Bavaria and is specialized for contract manufacturing with laser technology, especially laser welding, thrilling, cutting and surface processing. With more than 45 laser systems and around 200 employees we are a leading laser job shopper in Germany. For rounding up our service capability, we also have a construction department for fixture devices and machine adjustments; inline and supporting quality assurance; a mechanical department for pre- and post-processing of samples and of course a development department for process engineering. When asking about a typical number of series production for a job shopper like us, we cover manufacturing jobs with just one complex prototype part (e.g., welding of a chamber for a particle accelerator), as well as one million parts per year (e.g., battery packs for forklifts). One million is the magical number, when all companies start planning about implementing an external production process into their own production. Here / In this case we are also available for transfer assistance.
How did you hear about the CLP and why did you choose to join?
To be honest, the CLP heard first of me and invited me for a talk at the PLI conference. Here I talked about the challenges of copper welding with infrared laser wavelength and which strategy is the best. I also heard other interesting speeches and the people were very open minded for interesting talks. After these days I got the impression, that the laser community in France is very small, compared to Germany or the United Kingdom, but the potential for industrial applications is very high. A big challenge for a company is always the first step into a new technology. The entrance investment for laser technology is not low and needs especially for laser welding and USP processing significant knowledge. Therefore, companies struggle to switch from conventional manufacturing to new innovative technology. Here we see ourselves as the (possible) perfect bridge – with our laser technology and 25 years of laser knowledge we can help laser newcomers and older adapters with workshops, trials, and contract manufacturing as well.
What are the latest innovations of your company that you are most proud of?
I’m proud of many things, especially that a medium-sized company like us can be this innovative and research-focussed. I may mention that we are part of four public funded national or international research projects, each of them includes innovation for laser technology. Every year we also have different internal projects, connected to process optimization or implementation of new technology into our manufacturing plant. Two interesting topics for this year, for example, was the implementation of laser cleaning as a state-of-the-art process for us; or automatization of different projects with collaborating robot systems.
