Fiber Laser Beer Tap

What do you with an upcoming trade show, a spare fiber optic welding head and beer?

The goal was an interactive piece for Photonics West — (and other tradeshows) — where once the floor closes, the beer comes out. I wanted to keep the head’s external features intact and stay true to the traditional yellow fiber optic cable IPG is known for. If you’ve seen IPG’s products, you’ve seen the yellow.

The tap under construction on the bench — welding head up top, IPG's yellow cable coiled alongside

A bit of SolidWorks, a tiny bit of machining in our shop, and I managed to shoehorn a valve right into the head. Add some push-to-connects and food-safe tubing, and the only other thing the beer actually touches on the way out is the copper nozzle.

The mechanism is the fun part: you twist the camera monitor 90 degrees to open the valve and pour. Here it is during water testing —

— and here’s the real reveal, pouring an actual beer.

The finished tap pouring a cold one in the office kitchen

Best-tasting laser I’ve ever made.