Weekly Progress

CO2 Laser, FAP800 Diode Laser and CCP Laser Burning

40W CO2 Laser 

 

40W CO2 Laser Burning

Cooling System

40W Conduction Cooling Package (CCP) Diode Laser

40W FAP800 Laser Bar

Firing Laser

The laser is powered at 2.2V and 10A. For maximul output power, the current from supply should be ~ 60A. At this current the output power was not sufficient to burn anything. 


Secondary Safety Enclosure



We built secondary safety enclosure to block any beam accidently coming out of primary enclosure. A webcam was fitted inside the primary enclosure to monitor laser.

Laser bar and enclosure

 

Lasercutter enclosure

 

FAP800 Series laser bar

 

 

 

Week 1: CO2 Laser

 

1) 40W CO2 laser tube
http://www.lightobject.com/40W-CO2-Sealed-Laser-Tube-for-Small-K40-laser-engravning-machine-Free-shipping-P208.aspx

2) KV voltage source
http://www.lightobject.com/40W-PWM-CO2-Laser-Power-Supply-P71.aspx
(The power supply has interlock system, when triggered it switch off the laser)

3) Cooling system-
option 1 (short term) -  015 have chilled water supply near the optical table.
option 2 (long term) - Small pump + water reservoir
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-CL-W0132-P500-Water-Pump/dp/B000W3K0HS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329210267&sr=8-2

4) Ventilation
We already have ventilation system used for DNA synthesizer. (I
discarded all the chemicals, only machine need to be trashed and will
be done in a week)

Safety

1) Lit class 4 laser safety sign
http://www.lasersafetyindustries.com/Class_4_Lit_Laser_Safety_Sign_p/100-70-262.htm
(power supply has TTL output to drive the laser safety sigh)

2) Safety glasses
http://www.thorlabs.com/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=762

3) Laser safe curtain
Installed by EHS

 

Week 2: Laser Comparison - Cost/Power/Efficiency

 

Advantage of solid state lasers

 

1) Compact

2) Cheap (?)

3) TEC cooling

4) Power supply ~2V, ~50A

5) Optical Fibers

 

 

 

Some suppliers of solid state lasers

 

1) Coherent laser diode - 40W FAP800 Series - TEC cooled

 

 

Price - Used one in ebay ~90$, New - Waiting for quote

 

Sufficient to burn wood, (see video below)

 

 

 

 

It operates at 800nm - 900nm so one has to see what materials it can
cut and all.

 

2) 100W 950nm DPSS Laser diode Bar (Made in China), ~ 200$ per unit

 

 

http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/sinolasersh/product-detailXeNJdFATrgcW/China-100W-QCW-High-Power-Laser-Diode-Bar-808nm-for-DPSS.html

 

3) 35W 808nm Opto Power Corp Fiber coupled Laser (cooling ?)

 

 

 

4) Spectra Physics 40W laser Diode (used - 90$), New - ?

 

 

 

Source - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spectra-Physics-B-135164-Q12-Laser-Diode-bar-high-power-40W-808nm-/370586555918?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5648ae160e#ht_7511wt_176

 

5) JENOPTIC Laser (German company, power 30W-250W, any cooling)

 

 

Source - http://www.jenoptik.com/en-diode-laser-modules-product-overview

 

 

 

 

Minutes of the meeting

 

1) Reclassify Class 4 laser into Class 1 laser - enclose beam, interlocks, warning sings

 

2) Division of work -

1 - Laser (Prashant) - TEC cooling, fiber coupled, interlocks
2 - Mechanical system design (Solidworks etc) (Sam, David)

3 - Fabbing - Prashant, Sam, David, Andrew

4 - Power supply (Andrew ?) - The laser require ~ 2.0V, ~50A power supply which we can buy but its a good idea if we can make one of our own.

5 - Head start laser enclouser - Optical table + water-jet cut sheets

 

3) Some cool Ideas came up in meeting

 

1 - Using CCD camera rather then Window - Safe , cheap (?)

2 - Using laser bar as head - No optical component and alignment needed , reduce cost

3 - Use snap-together joints, fexible size of cutting bed.

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

 

1 - Open Source Laser cutter

 

2 - Lasercutter Project blog

3- Datasheet of FAP 800 series lasers
http://www.coherent.com/downloads/FAP800series_DSFinal.pdf

 

4 - JENOPTIC Laser datasheet - http://optonlaser.com/IMG/pdf/jold.pdf

 

5 - Some Buring with 60W IR laser diode

 

PART 1

 

 

 

PART - 2

 

 

Week 3: Fiber Lasers/ Fiber Optics

 

Fiber Laser

 

Epilog FiberMark Series Laser cutter uses

 

Ytterbium Fiber Laser, Air Cooled, 1062 nm From 10 to 50 watts

 

http://www.epiloglaser.com/fibermark_series.htm

http://www.hypertherm.com/en/Products/Laser/Fiber_Laser/

 

Vendors

 

J K Lasers

 

 

http://www.jklasers.com/fiber-lasers

http://www.ipgphotonics.com/Collateral/Documents/English-US/YLM_Series_SM_IPG.pdf

 

 

2)

 

 

Fiber Lens

 

http://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=1341

 

Lensed Fibers

 

 

 

 

http://www.laseoptics.com/lensed-fibers.html

http://www.laseoptics.com/Lensed-Tapered-Fibers-Description.pdf

http://www.ozoptics.com/ALLNEW_PDF/DTS0080.pdf

 

Lensed Diode Array

 

 

http://www.indiamart.com/newage/laser-diode-arrays.html

 

 

 

 

Some resources

1) http://www.princetel.com/tutorial_collimator.asp