Laser cutter

 

A gantry laser is a system of motion. It contains rails and belts. Attached are 3 or 4 mirrors that deliver the laser beam through deflection to carry a focus that typically contains a single layer lens. While the laser is going the lens moves around with the work area to provide a laser that is focused to run the job you’re working on. A few good examples of a gantry laser is our Muse CO2 lasers. A sealed unit, also known as a Galvo laser,usually contains 2 mirrors that are attached to galvanometers.

The laser beam is focused through a fixed lens. This lens is referred to as the F-Theta lens. This is technically known as a beam deflection laser from the work area that is constrained by what the lens offers.

 

What’s great about a CO2 laser is that the quality of the beam delivers a life expectancy of over 20,000 hours. As a maker or someone who wants to start, it’d be crazy not to get your hands on a CO2 laser for yourself! If you’re looking for a larger bed for those big projects, we recommend checking out our Muse Titan while you’re at it! For our next laser, we present to you, the fiber! Fiber lasers are your best option for some marking, engraving and they are especially great for metal! A fiber laser can easily be used and adjusted to your liking to get the depth, speed, and the look that you are going for with how user-friendly and easy it is to use! They’re also great for personalizing or customization for projects like bags, creating QR codes, marking your smart watch band, jewelry, and the list goes on! Here are some that we offer at FSLASER. Fiber lasers operate at wavelengths of 1,064nm.

 

They do well with metals however, the best part of it being is that it does great on many other materials too! When a fiber laser comes in contact with an object, it will expose deep material by “engraving” or “carving” by these physical and chemical reactions. These are caused by the photons (which is light energy) reacting to the area it is working on. Fiber lasers convert more of this energy to light in comparison to CO2 for example. What’s also good to note is that there are two types of fiber lasers; Standard and MOPA. Standard fiber lasers are the most commonly found source of a fiber laser. They are usually not as efficient nor provide a wide range of pulse modulations however. In comparison to a MOPA laser, this means that they are less flexible and are much more prone to shaping or deforming different types of materials. You can find our Galvo Fiber machine With a much shorter wavelength than the CO2 and Fiber, a UV uses a process called, “cold processing”. For that reason, they are operating at 355 nm! When it comes to the cold processing, UV lasers throw out photons with high-energy in the ultraviolet spectrum. With that, these photons then break the chemical bonds in the material and cause them to go through a process of non-thermal damage. As a UV laser’s wavelength is one-third of standard wavelength lasers, this is referred to as THG lasers (third-harmonic generation). When passing a standard wavelength laser at 1064 nm through a non-linear crystal, this wavelength is achieved. It is then reduced to 532 nm, passing through another crystal, and continuing to reduce its wavelength further all the way down to 355 nm. Now that all the science stuff is out of the way, in summary, the UV process with marking is extremely clean, fine and controlled. It’s great for delicate work and when you are looking for accurate and fine detail. However, the UV is not normally the best laser to choose for when cutting certain materials.