Power supply and chiller for 180W CW YAG?

[dar303]

That is not a laser show laser as you can understand, it is used for metal marking! But it would be sweet to frequencydouble...

Anyway, I may have the possibility to get my hands on a Spectron Laser Systems YAG head including scanners that was used in a big industrial engraving machine.
It is just the head without powersupply and chiller so this will be a major project if I decide to try to get it going.

Does anyone have a hint about the voltage/current and cooling requirements that a laser this size may need?
I have heard of currents around 100Amperes and 20 or so volts.

This is a picture of the laser:
http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/4387/yaglaserrh7.jpg

The lamp housing & rod:
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9605/pumphusvk4.jpg

I may buy it even if there is no possibility of getting it to work, there should be a lot of good parts in there!

Thanks!

[hearts_j]

Hi,

I think the arc lamp is the key,so you can contact with them.
http://www.heraeus-noblelight.com/

As I know,the power of the 120w cw laser is about 30A/200V DC ,the striking arc votage is over 20K votage.

So you can check the lamp and decided the chiller.

Good luck

Kalvin

[dar303]

Thanks for the information!
The laser head apparently comes with a new lamp in a box so I'll try to get the data off that lamp and see where that leads me.

[Things]

If you need a cheap lowish voltage power supply, you could try rewinding a microwave tranformer. I have heard of people getting like 670A from those things. When you pull it out, its typically wound for about 2kV @ around 2A.

As for chilling, geesh your gonna need a damn good cooling system, maybe even phase change!

[mixedgas]

go over to perkin elmer and get the flashlamp guide, it has a arc lamp chapter. xenon short arc is 20V and 20-150 amps. If its a YAG, YOU have xenon long arc, a more typical number is 150-175V or more and 10-100 amps. You need 1-2 Kv across the lamp as a start boost plus a 15Kv high current ignite pulse. they have some specialized cooling requirements for a flow tube and flowing water to prevent localized boiling and cavitation. also for a explosion shield and usually a tube around the lamp that prevents UV from cooking the rod.

Steve Roberts

[dar303]

Thanks for the advise! I was kind of hoping that you would see my post...you know a lot about "real" lasers!
I'll see if I can get some more information about the actual components in this laser.