News Briefs (Jan. 16, 2006)

The Laser Institute of America (LIA), a professional organization for the laser industry, has released an advance program of technical sessions for the second Pacific International Conference on Applications of Lasers and Optics (PICALO), to be held April 3-5 in Melbourne, Australia. Topics will include laser materials processing, micro-, nano- and ultrafast fabrication and more. The conference is open to anyone interested in lasers and materials processing. To register for PICALO 2006 or to request an advance program, call LIA at (800) 34-LASER, (407) 380-1553; visit www.laserinstitute.org/conferences/picalo to view the program online. Discounted conference registration fees are available for members of LIA and cooperating societies: the Association of Industrial Laser Users; Australian Manufacturing Technology Institute Ltd.; Society of Automotive Engineers, Australasia; Materials Australia; Tooling Australia; and the Welding Technology Institute of Australia. . . . Thorlabs Inc., a Newton, N.J., supplier of electro-optical equipment, components and instrumentation, has released a new "Tools Of The Trade" catalog, featuring more than 700 new products, including nonmagnetic optical tables and breadboards, new optical power meters, a 3-D beam profiler and an improved DET detector series. Thorlabs said it also expanded its offerings of existing products, such as optomechanic positioning equipment, laser diodes, optical components and fiber optics. Other new items are a state-of-polarization locker and new cage system parts, including beamsplitter cubes and kinematic cage blocks. For a free copy, visit: www.thorlabs.com; e-mail: sales@thorlabs.com; phone: (973) 579-7227 . . . TUV Rheinland of North America, a compliance engineering, testing and certification company for domestic and global markets, has unveiled a compliance label for companies that wish to certify that their products meet the RoHS (restriction of hazardous waste) directive that will go into effect in Europe in July. The RoHS and WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) directives are environmental legislation encompassing equipment in 25 European Union countries. RoHS requires companies to eliminate six known pollutants from their products: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE). WEEE required all companies to file recycling plans by July 2005 for their electrical products that were on sale in Europe. For more information about the new RoHS labeling program, call TUV Rheinland at (888) 743-4652.