Some gears and testing for laser-ablating and -marking ...

[VDX]

... yes, they do -- but will this be enough for lasing too?

Here another ruby-conglomerate, what's too an eyecatcher, when illuminated with 405nm (the camera don't show the excellen "deep-red").

Viktor

[VDX]

... laserengraving a steel-ring -- will try to "cut" the cross next time, instead of marking it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUTitgpE4lA

Viktor

[VDX]

... got a galvoscanning head and two f-theta optics for my 10Watt RF-CO2-laser -- will mount it on an XY-stage for an engraving/cutting setup with up to 600x600mm working range with "split-arrays", where the Galvo fast (up to some meters/s) engraves a split-area and the CNC moves (with 30mm/s) between the splits

Viktor

[VDX]

... got another "toy" from a friend -- it's an 8x laser-bank from a DLP-beamer with 32Watts nominal or 44Watts max outout power ... it's sort of a "DIY"-beam-combining, but good enough for my laser-fusing project

In the image with the beam only one of the diodes is running ...

Viktor

[VDX]

... I recently set up a system with galvo scanner, blue 5W diode and autofocus at one of our customers who already uses a CNC system with one of my blue 3.5W diode modules for marking shoe soles.

Here a test with the Galvo system - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNdb...ature=youtu.be


Attached, what the "old" CNC system looks like (in the back, through the door, you can see the galvo system).

Viktor

[VDX]

... lasered some 70mm stainless steel discs for "outdoor use" with the 20W Galvo marker for a friend -- the inscription (especially the serial numbers) should withstand >20 years of wind and weather

Here a video showing the marking of a (slightly different) previous part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grxHPJiiWnI

Viktor

[absolom7691]

That's awesome! What wavelength is that? I have an 80W sealed co2 but have not really attempted steel as I think the absorption wavelength of steel is far lower than 10.6μm. The way I have done steel/aluminum is paint, laser etch the paint, and then electro-etch the metal and strip the paint. It's a major PITA!

[VDX]

... its a pulsed fiberlaser @1064nm and up to 10kW pulse peak power (200ns pulse-length, 20kHz PWM, 20W max. averaged), so a complete different "world"

But can be surpassed by CW fiberlasers in terms of "damage" -- have some with CW/QCW powers of 50, 60 and 85Watts, what's not this pulse peak powers (good for initial absorption), but will give similar results with steel


Here a video of another type - a 200W@975nm laserdiode, with roughly 100 Watts (CW power) burning into a tile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVsZ07bP-AM



Attached some images, showing the "impact" of 100W@975nm (CW) with different "pulse lengths" of some microseconds (IIRC 3, 5 and 10µs) on steel ...

Viktor

[VDX]

... if this unit is still functional (got it from a friend), then my next galvo-marker will be a pretty heavy beast!!

It's a 30Watts MOPA fiber-laser from IPG, what's higher power and better "variability", than the 20Watt (not MOPA), that made the galvoscanner-samples

Viktor

[absolom7691]

Yeah, just keep rubbing it in! I have some major laser envy about your toys! Very cool stuff.