The laser tube is the heart of a laser machine which plays a decisive role in laser cutting performance. A good laser tube should has ideal mode, stable power and other elements.
There are many kinds of lasers which can be defined differently from different angles. Distinguish from the medium of excitation, it can be divided into solid state laser and gas laser. They use different solids or gases as media. At present, the main laser is Co2 laser tube in laser cutting field. Co2 laser tube which it is widely used in cutting various materials Because of it can more easy to obtain ideal laser mode and higher energy, with stable performance and short downtime.
1. Laser tube length
Most end customers have no idea about which laser tube is the right one for their laser cutting & engraving machines when they want to replace the old tube, even they have been using laser cutting & engraving laser machines.
There are more than thousands of laser cutting/engraving machine suppliers in the world, but there is no international standard to define a laser tube power. Even for same size laser tube, different suppliers could tell you different laser power. For example, L1200*D50mm 60w laser tube, actually most suppliers say it is 60w, and some suppliers say it is 65watt, 70watt, even 80watt. Thus it happens a lot some customers don’t get a correct laser tube, it can be size problem, or the new tube cannot cut as thick material as the old one.
We, SPT laser, as one of the professional co2 laser tube manufacturers in China, deeply know that the laser tube power is defined when the tube length and diameter are assured in production. E.g. the rated power of a L1200*D50mm laser tube must be 60w, no other possibilities. Thus the easist way for customers to tell the laser tube power is by tube length and diameter. You could just choose the tube according to the size of the old tube on laser machine if you have no interest into its real power when buying a new one. This saves you much time and trouble.
When many manufacturers sell laser tubes, they will tell you the peak power of the laser tube, making you mistakenly think that this is the normal power of the laser tube.
Relationship between laser tube length and power:
|
Model |
Rated power(w) |
Peak Power (w) |
Length (mm) |
Diameter (mm) |
|
50w |
50 |
50~70 |
1000 |
50 |
|
60w |
60 |
60~80 |
1200 |
50 |
|
70w |
60 |
60~80 |
1250 |
55 |
|
80w |
80 |
80~110 |
1600 |
60 |
|
90w |
90 |
90~100 |
1250 |
80 |
|
100w |
100 |
100~130 |
1450 |
80 |
|
130w |
130 |
130~150 |
1650 |
80 |
|
150w |
150 |
150~180 |
1850 |
80 |
NOTE: Different manufacturer produces laser tube with different peak power.
2. Power Stability
The greater the power of the laser tube, the more difficult it is to ensure the stability of the laser tube. When the laser tube with unstable power is working, it is easy to reduce the cutting effect of the laser machine. After testing, SPT laser tube power stability is always less than 10%, and make the cut better.
3. Beam quality(M2)
The ideal beam quality is 1, so the closer the beam quality is to 1, the better the quality of the laser tube. SPT laser tube is Less than 1.2.
4. Laser mode
It is one of the most important indexes to measure laser quality. It can be divided into single mode, base module and multiple mode. The base module is TEM00, Its exponent is 0 on the X and Y axis, so it's an ideal dot. The laser which it is TEM00 can get the minimum beam diameter and minimum slit and faster cutting speed in the cutting process due to its light spot is small. Multiple mode is non-zero exponents on the XY direction, its laser beam quality is poor, generally only use for welding and not for cutting.
5. Laser frequency
Laser output is divided into pulse output and continuous output. The laser used for cutting and welding adopt to pulse output mode. The pulse frequency mainly affects the cutting speed and the cutting roughness. High frequency is essential for high speed cutting. At present, most co2 lasers manufacturer produce the Co2 laser tube frequency within 5000Hz.
6. Motivation model
Co2 laser tube produce laser via electrode motivation Co2 gas. According to the installation position of metal electrode, it can be divided into DC excitation and RF excitation. The difference between the two different incentive modes, please click to view:https://www.sptlaser.net/solution/32
Moreover, It is also a very important test for laser operation too long time in the process of using the laser.
The power attenuation of DC excited laser is caused by electrode ablation under long-term working condition. In addition, Some of the laser’s vacuum pump and turbo pump use lubricating oil which it is caused laser resonator contaminated by lubricating oil, thus the laser life is shortened. So it would be better if you could give your machine a rest after working for a while.
SPT Laser Technology Co., Ltd. has always been committed to manufacturing stable co2 lasers to meet the high requirements of application equipment. Based on more than 10 years of rich industry experience from the founding team, a deep understanding of our customer’s needs has been developed. Can independently produce high-quality RF co2 lasers, CO2 laser tube, laser lenses, etc.
