[tintruder]

I was doing a bit of CO2 cutting today.
We have a Baasel Lasertechnic CO2 machine (Slow flow external He, N, CO2 gasses mix)which usually runs about 75W at the nozzle in pulsed mode. (200W max) I set it up for CW and tuned it down to 1W.

At 1W I was able to cut through two sheets of 4mil Mylar and a series of other thin "plastics" supplied by a customer who wanted to laser weld the sheets together.

(pretty small window between welding and cutting...would be better to "print" on a UV-activated adhesive and hit it with a UV laser)

So if you need CO2 to cut thin paper, plastic etc, 20W will definately work. My guess is that 5W will do it if focused properly, so SYP is right-on with his estimates.

Co-axial airflow thru nozzle will also help keep down scorching and clear ablative debris from embedding in reflow in meltable materials.

If you intend to be pulsing CO2 for CNC, don't skimp on the power supply.

TOM

[greybeard]

tintruder - thanks for the input - would nitrogen(or even co2) be better for reducing scorching ?
Any idea what width cut/beam diameter for your mylar cut ?

[gbm_designs]

Greetings Everyone-

This a topic I may be able to address reasonably well since I design lasers for marking and cutting for a living.

If you're looking to do simple marking or engraving in polymers or anodized aluminum I would suggest going with a small 10-watt diode around 808-nm. You'll need a driver and a small water chiller with a cold plate. I'd suggest looking on E-Bay.

If you're looking for something to engrave or cut wood, you'll need a CO2. These are the easiest to work with in my mind. I'd suggest you look at Sam's Laser FAQs (search Google). I recently purchased a 20-watt CO2 Tube on E-Bay with RF Driver and Power Supply for $100.00US. It's then a simple matter of cooling the unit with water and pump and applying a 0-10VDC analog signal for power level. The Spindle function in MACH3 works well for this.

Christian

[miljnor]

give us the nuts and bolts on the mach3 spindle deal. Did you make a board that makes the 5v ttl signal to a 0-10v signal???

[Syp]

Most RF driven CO2 lasers use a 5 volt digital signal, whose duty cycle is varyied to obtain different power outputs. You probably *don't* need a 0-10V signal.

Syp

[miljnor]

awsome!
thanks

[belli]

Hello

http://www.emissiontechnologies.com/plans.htm for a home made laser.

Greg

[Syp]

Not worth it nowadays, unless you just want the educational experience.

[Micro Rotors]

sorry wrong thread

[gbm_designs]

Greetings All-

For paper cutting, and even anodized etching (not metal engraving) you may want to look at the Cipher V-10 from Nutfieldtech.com

10-watt CO2.


I've got one and it works great. The only issue I have is that it is a small marking field.

But it includes the Galvos and Scan Lens, is air-cooled and easy to operate.

I added a X-Y stage 14"x14" beneath it to 'shuttle' my large parts around.

The trick of course is making sure the galvos are aligned to the X-Y Travel. Otherwise you wind up with a stitching issue.



0-10VDC. Eariler I posted that I use the 0-10VDC for the analog control. I left something out so I should clarify that now.

I use the same controller for a Ytterbuim fiber laser which looks for 0-10vdc for 0-100% power out.

I run this 0-10VDC signal into a MAX232 chip to convert it to 0-5VDC for the CO2. The MAX232 and MAX233 chips were designed to convert TTL to RS-232 levels (-12<-->12 to 0-5vdc).


Christian

[zoltan]

Hi,

What is the price of cipher V-10?

Thank you,

Zoltan

[ronateah]

I have a couple of lasers that I have decided not to use. I just listed one on ebay today as I was a little worried about using them. No experiance with this stuff. Now i am wondering if I should this keep one and try and make use it. It is a spectra-physics J20 – BL10 - 106Q. The power supply is a 20 watt fibercoupled q switched supply and the bl10-106Q head is capable of 3 watts average output.

This is where I get confused and can't quite put a frame of reference on the power as output. Three watts does not mena much by itself. Interms of the pulse energy I have these specs.

Pulse width is 10nsec at 10khz
Average power of 3 watts at 30 khz
and pulse energy is 150uJ at 10Khz

I still don't know what it will do at the end of the day. It would be great if some one could give and idea of what this laser is capable of processing.

[ronateah]

Thanks all for your comments

[paulC]

It may be that no one knows.
My feeling is that 3 watts is not going to cut much more than a piece of paper.
If you want people to view your posts, keep bumping them every so often so that they appear in the new posts.
Paul

[hkxy]

it is a new RFlaser .it is 30W
it is not HVlaser (glass laser)

[bobyblue]

i have read the post by gbm_design about a new
10 watt co2 laser,
here the link http://nutfieldtech.com

and i would like to expand on the subjet like setting it
up on a cnc machine. It would need probably no mirror
and could be a easy installation.

so if anybody know more about this, let hear you.

I like simplicity. Bob