OOH I WANT one!

[The Natural Philosopher]

ROFLMAO. you really are a card harry.

[newshound]

So you are saying the picture is faked? Working distance looks like about 100 mm, maybe there is a lens at the end of the "barrel".

Access is far better than an angle grinder. Much more manageable than a lance. Advantage over that and O/A is that it turns on and off at the touch of a button.

It's TWI ffs. Have you ever been there? I thought friction stir welding sounded a bit unlikely when it was first announced.

The military need much more range (although ISTR they did demonstrate bringing down a missile from a plane).

[harryagain]

The picture is faked. It's all propaganda to give the impression that nuclear decommissioning is easy and feasible when everyone with half a brain knows we're talking about a problem that to date has proved insoluble.

[The Natural Philosopher]

you didnt watch the video?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Or read the companies news item

Or understand who The Welding institute are?

golly harry, you will be telling me next that global warming is all a fake.

[tony sayer]

In article , harryagain scribeth thus

Of course Harry, and once again thank you so very much for pointing this out to us. Perhaps you'd like to get back to reading your old stock of the Beano;?..

[Richard]

Hey f****it... I'm still awaiting my education.

[John Rumm]

Its amazing how someone can watch a video of the thing actually being operated and yet extract so little information from it...

Still lets take these one by one.

Inverse square law - does not apply to a laser beam. Yes they normally do work close, and this is typically because they are deliberately beam shaped to concentrate power onto a small area at a predictable distance. However this is nothing to do with inverse square law power reduction and more to do with not posing a hazard to the other side of your workshop with any beam overspill!

As you saw from the video, they are working within a few inches of the surface being cut.

As can be seen, by pointing it in at the right place, and traversing it relatively smoothly. Much as one would use a plasma cutter freehand.

Its not a hand held laser. The "gun" is handheld but fed via umbilical.

That is less clear - however I suspect that its less critical of working distance than say a plasma cutter - making cutting a pipe far easier since the operator can work from one side only.

AG, I think not. A thermic lance is fairly crude.

Rubbish, its obviously using kW range industrial welding laser sources, not TWatt QSwitched chemical lasers.

[Richard]

Now that's education! ;-)