[n1tr0]

Hi,
I'm working designing & building a new laser cutter & engraver. I would like to run a 60-80W CO2 laser for my engraving and thinner materials with a 130-150W CO2 for cutting my thicker materials (plywood & such). I've seen a lot of gantries with dual heads, but that doubles the mass that needs to be accelerated & decelerated when rastering. It also cuts into the usable reach of each laser head and adds double the alignment/complexity.
I'm wondering if there are any beam combiners, like a one-way mirror, that would work with lasers of the same frequency? I've seen dichroic-mirrors/beam-combiners for lasers of different frequencies (usually for adding a red-dot or such).
Given that the physics of the problem seems unlikely to work out, is there maybe another combination of lasers for marking & cutting that could be combined without drastically increasing the cost?
Thanks for your input.

[cinematic2]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there are any beam combiners,

Look. Two Synrad resonators optically combined in one laser.

[Storen]

You are right. Having 2 heads is fine for machine designed exclusively for cutting (low speed). However this should be avoided in universal configurations for cutting/engraving especially if you are going to drive the gantry with steppers (steppers loose torque with speed increase).

Using a beam combiner is the right approach. Combining 2 CO2 beams shouldn't be a problem. There are machines that combine CO2 with Fiber. Check this - Link

One note - for good quality engraving you want to minimize the beam power fluctuation as much as possible. I assume both of the lasers in your configuration would be DC (Direct Current). For better result I would advise using 40W and below. For DC lasers lower wattage means lower fluctuation as well.