Laser Diodes System for Flexible Manufacturing（激光二极管为柔性制造系统）.pdf

Presented at FABTECH November, 1999 Chicago IL Laser Diodes System for Flexible Manufacturing Authors: John M. Haake, Crystal M. Cook and Mark S. Zediker Introduction Industrial laser systems based on high power laser diodes are now available with output power levels as high as 4,000 Watts CW. These lasers are being used in applications such as welding, heat-treating, surface cladding, brazing and paint stripping. This paper will review the recent results of tests performed with the ISL-4000L (Figure 1) which is manufactured by Nuvonyx Incorporated. Figure 1 Nuvonyx ISL-4000L Laser System Industrial Semiconductor Laser (ISL) The technology basis for the ISL family of laser systems is a unique lenslet array close coupled to a two dimensional array of laser diodes. The advantages of the laser diodes are their high electrical to optical conversion efficiency. The laser diodes used by Nuvonyx have demonstrated electrical to optical conversion efficiencies as high as 60%. The net result is a laser system with a wall plug electrical to optical power conversion efficiency of 20%. Consequently, a 4,000 Watt CW laser diode system consumes less than 20,000 Watts of electrical power, including the laser water-cooling system. This efficiency translates into a lower cost of operation for the user. The laser diodes are packaged in individual heatsink assemblies at Nuvonyx (Figure 2) to form a linear array of laser diodes. These linear arrays are then stacked to form a two dimensional array of laser diodes (Figure 3) that is capable of 1.2 kWatts CW. The output from the laser diodes is collimated by a custom set of micro-optics to the 1 Presented at FABTECH November, 1999 Chicago IL high-power laser-diode beam. A lens system it then used to either focus the power from the laser diode arrays or re-