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Aluminum Welding Welcome to the Precision Laser Processing Lab, abbreviated (PL)^2. The lab is located on North Carolina State University's campus at the West Research Annex. (PL)^2 was established in 2005. It is supported by the NC State University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and by several National Science Foundation grants. The purpose of (PL)^2 is to investigate material processing through the use of our fiber laser, manufactured by IPG Photonics. Several areas of our research are , aluminum welding, micro-hole drilling, glass cutting, and shape memory alloy treatment.

Beam Expander There are many people involved in the lab. Dr. J. F. Tu is the director of (PL)^2 and a professor of Mechanical Engineering. The current research group includes two Ph.D. students, William Ray Harp and Alexander G. Paleocrassas, one M.S. student, Bradley E. Riley, and two undergraduate research assistants, Steven Drake and Ryan C. Struzik.