The EUREKA 643 project “Safety in the Industrial Application of Lasers” was one of the biggest European collaborative projects in the field of lasers, involving approximately 100 companies across Europe. The UK programme, which ran from April ‘92 to April ‘96, was the largest and most diverse of the national programmes. Topics addressed in the programme covered safety and performance standards; risk assessment; training and education; machine control; radiation measurement and calculation; free space and fibre optic delivery; safety enclosures; fume extraction, treatment, sampling and analysis.
An appraisal of the programme is given, together with a summary of technical achievements and other highlights of the programme. The likely long term impact of this major European effort is assessed, in particular its success in addressing the concerns of industrial users considering exploiting laser technology for materials processing.