Lasers

 Fiber lasers currently are available at power levels to 25 kW where they have demonstrated speed and penetration depth results never before achieved. This laser power level has greatly expanded applications for laser cutting and welding. The lower power fiber lasers are used for laser engraving, marking, and intricate cutting of sheet metal products.

The major benefits of fiber laser technology include the following: high wall plug efficiency greater than 27 percent, long diode life 50,000 plus hours, maintenance free, the same unit can cut weld or drill, low beam divergence, and low cost of ownership. These lasers are compact and mobile and they offer high processing performance because they do not require warm up, there is no spot size change with power, and they have a large dynamic range of power output.

Fiber lasers are ideally suited to the types of environments typical in the medical device, computer, and electronics industries. The laser’s compactness, elimination of complex cooling systems, excellent constant beam properties, long forgiving focal lengths, and rapid warm-up make them ideal for applications in this type of manufacture. Cutting stents and seam welding pacemakers and implantable batteries for medical applications are good applications. The spot welding of flexures and suspension assemblies, such as read/write heads in computer manufacturing and welding pressure transducers are also appropriate for laser processing.

The fiber laser is made from a long optical fiber, which has good thermal properties and allows easy integration of all-fiber components and pump diodes, instead of using crystal rods, gas tubes, and conventional optics.  The design is generally more efficient, more compact, and more reliable that conventional lasers, and the life cycle cost is more competitive compared to solid-state and even gas lasers.  Fiber laser products are now used in applications as varied as product marking, engraving, razor blade welding, and metal cutting. Lasers Global is the preferred source for supplying laser systems with the new and maintenance free fiber lasers.

Operating Costs for 4KW Lasers of Differing Types

The conversion efficiency (60%) and low thermal effect due to the long fiber length is key to the fiber laser's low beam divergence and subsequent smaller spot size. These features result in finer detail for laser marked graphics, smaller kerf widths for cutting applications, and increased penetration for welding applications.

Fiber Laser Diagram

100 Watt CW Fiber Lasers can be used for fine intricate cutting and anneal marking. 5 to 20 Watt "Q-Switched" Pulsed Fiber Lasers are mainly used for marking and engraving applications. These lasers also have the advantage of being air cooled and do not require any water cooling.

100 Watt Fiber Laser

100 Watt Fiber Laser

20 Watt "Pulsed" Fiber Laser

20 Watt "Q Switched" Fiber Laser

20 Watt CW Compact Fiber Laser

CO2 Lasers have been the workhorse of lasers for many years in the metal, wood, and plastic cutting and welding applications. Although the 10,600 nm wavelength laser beam that CO2 lasers produce is reflective on metals, the high power density of their focused laser beam is quickly absorbed once the metal surface has reached a certain temperature, and then reaction with the metal is very aggressive. The CO2 laser beam is absorbed and reacts best with organic materials such as wood, plastic, and fabrics. These organic materials also present an enormous plethora of applications.

2,000 Watt CO2 Laser

CO2 lasers range in power output levels from 5 Watts to 10,000 Watts. they can be used for marking, engraving, cutting, welding and heat treating. This web site concentrates on the industrial and manufacturing applications for lasers, however, there is also an enormous quantity of CO2 laser used in the medical field for skin treatments, dental work, hair removal, and other surgical operations.

The lower power CO2 lasers are used for marking, engraving, and cutting woods, plastics, and fabrics. Many of these lasers, at power levels up to 100 watts, are air cooled, and over 100 watts are water cooled.

30 Watt RF Excited CO2 Laser

The laser beam from these low power lasers can be manipulated by mirrors attached to servo controlled galvanometer steering mechanisms, or mirrors attached to Cartesian coordinate high speed servo driven mechanisms. These lower power CO2 lasers are sealed units and do not need a continuous flow of laser cavity make-up gas for operation. The gas charge is generally good for about five to ten thousand hours of operation, or five years whichever is reached first.