Laser Cutter Notes
Release status: unknown
Description | turnkey or DIY laser-cutter toolheads
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Contents
RepRap Research/Writeups
Bright-VikBot or a good name.
Background
Description
Discussion: http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?70,13836,14061#msg-14061
Cost Estimate
- comercial 'naked' diodelaser with 8Watt@975nm and 0.1mm atached glass fibre: ~230 Euros (in quantities above 5 pcs).
- turnkey-system with 10Watts@975nm, a visible red pilot-laser and jack for the glass fibre: ~1000 Euros (in quantities above 5 pcs).
Components
Laser Light Sources
~45 W sealed CO2 laser ...
1 watt pigtail diode laser with optical head (focus ~50 microns):
5 watt pigtail diode laser with 4xLM317-driver atached and lighting on a beam-indicator without optics:
complete 5 watt pigtail diode laser-module with 4x or 5x LM317-driver, MOSFET, microcontroller, armored tube and an optic head - prototype on the left, V2 on the right:
'real blue' 445nm-diode with 1Ampere current and roughly 1Watt output power.
- left = focussed beam, middle = burning without filter, right = UV-filterplate:
1. Laser-source:
- CO2-lasertube ... sealed (RF) or 'naked' glass-tube
- diode-laser ... best with atached glass fibre (=pigtailed)
- ...
beam-feeding optics
2. beam-feeding optics:
- CO2: - mirrors
- diode-lasers: - glass fibre and/or lenses and mirrors
- ...
focussing optics
3. focussing optics:
- CO2: - Germanium- or ZnSe-lens for CO2-laser ... concave mirror is possible too
- diode-lasers: - 'normal' optical lenses
- ...
3.1. Embedding a Pilotlaser as guide or beam-indicator:
power source and output-power control
- Main article: Bright Light Circuit
4. power-source:
- CO2: - mostly monolithic PS, good when below 40 Volts for RF-CO2-lasers, 'naked' and DIY-CO2-tubes need above 1000 Volts
- diode-lasers: - constant-current-driver (e.g. more LM317 in parallel)
- a 5xLM317-driver with switching MOSFET:
- modified driver with 2xLM317 with 1Ampere each and 3xLM338 with 2, 2, and 2.6 Ampere for free combinations from 1 to 8.6 Amps:
- ...
5. output-power controller:
- CO2: - embedded in RF-CO2-lasers - mostly TTL-input capable of switching the laser output with some ten kHz
- diode-lasers: - current-modulation and/or PWM-switching for diode-lasers until some kHz
- diode-lasers: - AOM (AcoustoOpticalModulator) switching until some hundred kHz
- ...
6. controlling the output-power:
- generating geometrically defined pulses from the XY-clocks of the CNC-controller:
- calculating the needed power relative to moving speed of the laser focus
- ...
air jet
While not strictly necessary, many laser cutters have a blow a jet of air at the point being cut. Is it better to use (a) relatively cool room-temperature air, or (b) hot air?
Usage
CO2-laser cutting acrylic:
Diode-laser:
- cutting:
- brazing / hard soldering:
Multi-Diode-Laserhead:
- similar to an inkjet-printer, where many nozzles ar aligned in an array to print many dot-lines synchrone, you can align multiple diode-lasers in an array to process parallel lines simultanuous.
With falling prices of laserdiodes it should be possible to build a head with 8 hating/burning spots in a line with a distance of 5mm (diameter of typical small collimator-lenses) between them (or less, when arranging in a zigzag-array) in a DIY-range below 1000 Euros.
With a software separating the processing data for the single lasers you can speedup the time per sheet along with the count of lasers ...
Capacity/Specifications
Requirements
- Power
- Nitrogen tank or clean dry compressed air.
Health and Safety
Laser-goggles are essential when working with lasers!
This laser-goggles have blocking ranges of 700-1100nm (for diode-lasers and NdYAG) and 10600nm (for CO2-lasers)
Fumes and vapours are extremely toxic and carcinogenic!
You can absorb the toxic vapours by exhausting the fuming area through a charcoalabsorber - e.g. the disc-shaped filters often used in deep fat fryers, or filtering units for soldering ...
Common laser-fume absorbers are really big parts but much more capable than absorbers for soldering vapours:
When using inert (and other) gases in an enclosed room you have to test for leakage or monitor the oxygen-concentration in the room.
External links
- "the design of a an Open Source laser system"
- "DiY. How to build a homemade Router Laser CNC." how to build a Router Laser CNC using some part from old printers.