View source for AILU

{{Infobox organization
|logo = Ailu logo final text (800x789).jpg
|formation = November 1995
|type = Non-profit Organisation
|key_people = President: Ric Allott
Vice-presidents: Paola De Bono, Richard Carter
Exec. Director: Dave MacLellan
|name = Association of Industrial Laser Users
|abbreviation = AILU
|founding_location = Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK
|location = 100 Ock Street, Abingdon, UK
|membership = 300+
}}The '''Association of Industrial Laser Users (AILU)''' was established in 1995 as an independent, [[non-profit]] organisation run by and for [[laser]] users involved in activities including [[manufacturing]], [[healthcare]], academic and industrial [[research]]; as well as suppliers of laser-related products and [[service (business)|service]]s.
The association promotes many activities surrounding laser use, such as the fostering of co-operation and collaboration and the dissemination of [[information]], experience and expertise relating to industrial laser technology, laser materials processing; its applications and related technologies.
== Organisation ==
The organisation of AILU is under the direction of an elected standing committee made up of [[wikt:representative|representatives]] from the UK industrial laser community. [[Elections]] are held annually at the Annual General Meeting.
AILU provides a wide range of general services to [[laser]] users and suppliers and hosts a number of [[special interest groups]] (SIGs) to better support members who have particular interests in common. These include a [[Job shop|Job Shop]] SIG (established in 1995, with 86 members) for subcontract laser-based [[engineering]] companies; a Market [[Business development|Development]] SIG (established in 2005, with 240 members) for suppliers of laser-related products and services; a [[Medical]] SIG (established in 2007, with 55 members) for [[clinicians]], manufacturers using lasers for manufacture of [[medical devices]] and suppliers of laser-related products and services; and the Micro:Nano SIG, AILU's newest, launched in mid 2008 at AILU's 10th microprocessing workshop.”
== Activities ==
The current activities of AILU include:
*The AILU magazine - a quarterly [[magazine]]
*Workshops of topics of laser [[technology]] and applications.
*A Product and Services [[Business directory|Directory]]
*[[wikt:forum|Forum]]s.
*Consultancy services.
*[[Opinion poll|Surveys]]
== AILU’s Membership ==
Application for membership of AILU is open to the industrial laser community worldwide. AILU currently has over 300 members, which make up (by sector) manufacturing industry including laser job shops (40%), suppliers of laser-related products and services (30%) and research and consultancy organisations (25%).
== The AILU Award ==
The AILU award recognises those individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the industrial use of lasers in the UK. The AILU Award is presented to an individual for significant contribution to laser materials processing and that preferably has wider benefit for the industrial laser user community.
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! Year
! Recipient(s)
! Outline
|-
|2015
|Paul Hilton
|Outstanding contribution to the industrial use of lasers in the UK
|-
|2013
|John Bishop
|Outstanding contribution to the industrial use of lasers in the UK
|-
|2011
|Janet Stoyel
|Contribution to the application of lasers to the discipline of [[Textiles]], [[Art]], [[Media (arts)|Media]] and [[Design]]
|-
|2009
|Brooke Ward
|Pioneering work on measurement standards and [[optics]], outstanding contribution
to the industrial use of CO<sub>2</sub> lasers in the UK.
|-
| 2008
| Tim Weedon
| Pioneering efforts to introduce Nd:YAG-based machining systems into the UK.
|-
| 2007
| Malcolm Gower & Phil Rumsby
| In recognition of their pioneering work with [[Excimer]] laser processing.
|-
| 2006
| David Stroud
| For his outstanding contribution to the industrial use of lasers in the UK.
|-
| 2005
| Bill Steen
| AILU's first President.
|-
| 2004
| [[Denis Hall]]
| Innovator of industrial lasers and their applications.
|-
| 2003
| Colin Webb
| Entrepreneur and [[gas laser]] innovator.
|-
| 2001
| David Dyson
| Innovator in slow axial flow industrial laser design.
|-
| 2000
| Martin Adams, Derek Russell & Frank van Rompuy
| Developers of the first fast axial flow CO<sub>2</sub> laser .
|-
| 1999
| Maurice Gates
| Entrepreneur and pioneer of lasers for fine metal cutting.
|-
| 1998
| Jim Wright
| Entrepreneur and pioneer of industrial Nd:YAG laser applications.
|-
| 1997
| Peter Houldcroft
| Inventor of oxygen assisted laser cutting.
|}
== References ==
*https://www.ailu.org.uk Association of Industrial Laser Users (AILU) website
{{Primary sources|date=January 2023}}
[[Category:Non-profit organisations based in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Laser awards and associations]]