From September 21 through September 25, the Heinrich-Lades-Halle in Erlangen opened its doors for the 14th CIRP Conference on Photonic Technologies LANE. LANE has been held in Fürth, Erlangen, and Nuremberg for more than three decades.
Over 400 national and international participants made their way to Erlangen. The conference was opened on Monday by host Michael Schmidt in the main hall. With over 200 presentations, the event once again offered a broad scientific program.
Over the course of four conference days, experts from academia and industry exchanged the latest research findings, developments, and applications in laser material processing—ranging from process and equipment technology to micro- and macro-processing and additive manufacturing. This year, the exchange even continued into a fifth day: The LaserEMobility Workshop complemented LANE 2026 with a special focus on laser applications for electric mobility, thereby linking another current field of research with industrial practice.
In addition to the presentations, there was once again a varied supporting program: a Casual Evening and the Knight Ceremony, during which Manyalibo J. Matthews, Ph.D., Materials Science Division Leader, was named the 12th “Knight of Lasertechnology”; “We Keep Lasers Running” early in the morning before the first presentations; a cocktail reception with a lab tour; and the LaserEMobility Workshop.
Of particular note were the special session on our Research Group 5134, “Solidification Cracks in Laser Beam Welding: High-Performance Computing for High-Performance Processes,” as well as the Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT) poster session, which was open to all participants throughout the entire event.