Progress of Laser Technology

Into the modern production workshop, you will see an industrial boom in which a laser is being produced in batches without interruption. As a new technology in the manufacturing industry, laser manufacturing has rapidly increased to the mainstream manufacturing technology for thin-cut cutting and welding in recent years. People even hope that laser technology will be put into mass production in the future. With its significant advantages in terms of reliability, cost and productivity, laser technology is not only the title of the modern manufacturing of the mainstay, it also subverts the traditional manufacturing model, making "impossible" a reality. Additive manufacturing, automated robotics, and remote cutting and welding are typical applications.

In the early 1960s, carbon dioxide lasers began to enter people's horizons. At the time, CO2 lasers were mainly used in industrial cutting and welding, but they were not widely used due to problems in procurement costs, operations, and maintenance. On the other hand, the lack of specialized training for technicians is also the reason why it is not popular. As carbon dioxide laser power continued to increase, by the 1980s they became high-power lasers for a wide range of applications in the industrial field. Despite this, the high cost of a large loss of gas still poses a challenge to the survival of CO2 lasers. In order to keep the equipment running smoothly, the cost of replacing maintenance such as blowers, electrodes, vacuum pumps, and mirror cleaning and calibration is very expensive.

The increase in power has expanded the field of application of lasers, especially in industrial welding. At the same time, due to the increase in power, the beam quality and other properties of solid-state lasers have been degraded by the thermal effects of the gain medium. Diode lasers have high electro-optic conversion efficiency and more sufficient output wavelength absorption. However, the beam quality and maximum power of a diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSS) are limited by the heat dissipation problem of the gain medium, while also facing problems such as contamination, standard calibration, and maintenance.

At the end of the 20th century, fiber optic communication brought significant improvements to laser technology, benefiting from breakthroughs in multiple optical technologies. Diode-pumped fiber amplifiers are a key factor in the success of fiber-optic communications with excellent stable beam quality, high efficiency, heat dissipation, and uncalibrated sealed optical paths that are immune to contamination, environmental or optical power levels. Since the laser is produced from an optical fiber, the efficiency of fiber coupling is also high. The investment in telecommunications has undoubtedly contributed to the survival and power growth of diode lasers, but because the general power of communication fiber amplifiers is kept below 1 watt, it is not suitable for most industrial applications.

Diode lasers have been able to meet some industrial needs after power boosting. The power of future disc lasers, direct semiconductor lasers and fiber lasers will continue to increase. With smaller spot sizes and higher optical power densities, fiber lasers and disc lasers still have the highest brightness. With this, they will also become the most popular laser products in industrial applications.

The development of laser technology has changed the manufacturing landscape. Today's manufacturers are under pressure from production efficiency, precision and price, which are driving the manufacturing industry to become more automated. In other words, lasers will be more suitable for manufacturing and more for manufacturing. The most widely used lasers in industrial processing currently include fiber lasers, carbon dioxide lasers, semiconductor lasers, and disk lasers.

Metal cutting is the most common application area for lasers today. Since the beginning of the 21st century, fiber lasers have occupied a central and absolutely dominant position in the entire industry. Its fast cutting speed and low maintenance and operating costs reduce component costs. Fiber lasers have the advantages of high brightness and high beam quality, making them thinner than semiconductor lasers, disk lasers or carbon dioxide lasers. Although CO2 lasers can also cut thick enamels with excellent end face quality, this advantage is quickly replaced and surpassed by fiber lasers and disc lasers.

For applications such as heating, cladding, brazing, etc. that do not require extremely high beam brightness, semiconductor lasers are an ideal choice. If fiber lasers and disk lasers are used, beams or beam shaping optics from larger fibers will result in the decomposition of high-intensity beams. Although this makes these sources more adaptable, semiconductor lasers (directly transmitted from diode strips or fiber optics) are more suitable for the applications mentioned above.

Metal 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is primarily a powder building tool. Tool manufacturers are now looking for better beam quality, more precise power control, and faster modulation speeds for better material properties and better surface smoothness. At present, only the fiber laser can be realized in the additive manufacturing. Fiber lasers and semiconductor tube lasers are also suitable for powder-feed additive manufacturing, known as laser deposition technology.