Originally Posted by hoyospetrola  I just would like to be sure, but... fiber laser are those with small power that you can attach togheter? then you have to focus the beam with a lenses? i sow a fella on ebay trying to sale one of those, it was like an aluminium box with twenty 1W fiber lasers, i really like that idea, and... the power supply should be easy to build.
Can someone send me a link to get some tutorial or more information about those lasers, thanks |
The general concept of a fiber laser is similar to a YAG laser, however, it replaces the YAG rod/crystal with rare-earth doped optical fibers in the amplifier. The technology is prominent in both the optical communications industry and the medical industry, and is beginning it's surge into the materials processing industry. No mirrors, flying optics, free space laser beam directing, sounds like a good fit for high power metal cutting.
The concept is fairly simple, use laser diodes to pump optical energy into the fiber amplifier, and out the other end comes a high quality laser beam.
With optical efficiency approaching 80% 5 100 watt pump laser diodes coupled to an erbium doped amplifier fiber, you could have a a pretty efficient 400watt laser on your hands. If only it were so simple!
Of course that dums down the hundreds of subtleties that make up a good fiber system. Types of fiber, coupling efficiency, laser modulation, cooling, resonator design, to name a few, but the list is long.
On your comment about a simple power supply, laser diodes (bars, arrays, stacks) are extremely sensitive to currents and over-voltages. I've heard of blowing laser diodes by overshooting the max current by 5mA on a power up. And at a cost of no less than $600 per diode bar it may quickly become a very expensive, simple power supply. Yes eBay may provide some relief on diode pricing, but you get what you pay for.
I don't think this is out of reach, which is why I started this thread in the first place, but its not a simple bolt together project either.
Anybody else have any thoughts?