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About Industrial Lasers
Industrial lasers and diode lasers are designed to
concentrate very high amounts of energy into a small defined point in
order to heat, melt or vaporize any material within that defined point.
Since the laser dot is miniscule, only a small zone outside of the focus
area is heated or deformed. Industrial lasers have a high stability output
and will operate reliably over the long-term, requiring minimal service.
Industrial laser manufacturers provide dependable solutions for high-duty
cycle/continuous-use applications. Depending on the repetition rate,
industrial lasers can operate continuously for hundreds or even thousands
of hours.
All lasers consist of an optical cavity, a lasing medium and a pumping
system. The optical cavity contains the media, which is the source of
the laser light, and the mirrors that excite the media and direct the
produced photons back along the same general path. The laser medium can
be a solid, a gas (e.g. argon), liquid dye or semiconductors, as is the
case in diode lasers. Pumping systems transfer energy to the media in
three basic ways. In optical pumping, the system utilizes photons from
another source, such as a xenon gas flash tube. Collision pumping transfers
energy using an electrical discharge within the pure gas or gas mixture
media. Pumping systems may also rely on the binding energy released in
chemical reactions in order to raise the media to the lasing state. While
all industrial laser manufacturers combine these three components, their
products can differ greatly in their size, output, beam quality, power
consumption and operating life.
Lasers are demarcated according to the lasing media that they employ.
Solid-state lasers – such as neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnet
lasers, also denoted as ND-YAG lasers or simply YAG lasers–have
lasing material distributed in a solid state. The most common gas lasers
use helium, helium-neon, HeNe and CO2 lasers. CO2 and YAG lasers are
used for deep
cutting and welding applications. Excimer lasers use a
mixture of reactive gases, such as chlorine and fluorine, and inert gases
(e.g. argon, krypton or xenon). Dye lasers have the ability to be tuned
over a wide range of wavelengths. They make use of complex organic dyes
in liquid solution or suspension as a lasing medium. Semiconductor lasers,
also call diode lasers, are typically small, electronic devices that
use low power. They may be built into larger arrays for use in applications,
such as the writing source in laser printers or CD players.
Exposure to lasers can cause severe damage. Lasers are divided into six
classes, according to their power output: Class I, Class I.A, Class II,
Class IIIA, Class IIIB and Class IV. Industrial laser manufacturers are
required to build in engineering controls in laser systems to provide
safety. All lasers, no matter what their power, must have an enclosure
around them that limits access to the laser beam or radiation. Class
IV systems contain the most dangerous lasers and require a master switch
that, when disabled, prohibits all but authorized personnel from operating
the laser. A beam stop or attenuator, which significantly reduces beam
emission when the laser is on standby, is permanently attached to all
Class IV lasers and is recommended for Classes IIIA and IIIB as well.
Other safety precautions that may be instituted include access restriction
to the lasing area, eye protection, area controls, barriers, shrouds,
education and training.
Featured
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Types of Industrial Lasers
- use contained CO2 gas to produce their
energy. CO2 lasers, which can run for thousands of hours before a new
CO2 supply is needed, work very well with most metals, wood, plastics,
ceramics, glass and quartz.
- , also referred to as "semiconductor
lasers,” utilize
microscopic chips made of gallium-arsenide or another semiconductor
to generate their source of coherent light. Diode lasers are usually
smaller and less powerful than other lasers and can be found in CD-ROM
drives, CD players, barcode scanners and laser printers.
- have a higher inherent capability than the laser system into which
they are incorporated, where the lower assigned class number of the
system is appropriate to the engineering features that limit accessible
emission.
- produce short, intense ultraviolet
(UV) light pulses and have the greatest power and versatility of any
light source in the UV range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Excimer
lasers are widely used in the scientific, industrial and medical industries.
- are lasing devices constructed with the reflecting cavity
mirror attached to the containment envelope that houses the gas.
-
are used for many applications, including metal, dieboard and plastic
cutting, metal and non-metal marking and micro-machining.
- are used to scribe letters, words, designs, etc., on different
materials, such as ceramics, wood and glass. Different lenses provide
variations in laser diameter, which in turn increases or decreases
the thickness of the marking.
- are used in lieu of scalpels and other medical instruments because of their precision.
- use neodymium-doped YAG crystals.
- present a quick exposure
time with little material outside the focus area being heated. Welding
lasers, which operate with a very dense energy, are extremely precise
and can perform welds that a human welder cannot.
- , also referred to as "Nd:YAG lasers” or "YAG
lasers,” are solid state lasers that use neodymium-doped YAG crystals
as the lasing mediums. YAG lasers are available in constant and pulsing
configurations and are generally used for such applications as laser
marking, cutting
and welding.
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