The light source of laser cleaning machine mainly has the following types, and each light source has its own unique advantages:
1. Fiber Lasers:
· Working principle: Using doped fiber as the gain medium, the amplification of energy is achieved by transmitting a laser in the fiber.
· Advantages: good beam quality, high energy conversion efficiency, strong stability, low maintenance cost. It is suitable for cleaning of various metal and non-metal materials, and has good results for large area cleaning and high-precision cleaning.
2. Pulse Nd: YAG Maser:
· Working principle: Using yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) crystal as the laser working material, the crystal is excited by the pump source to produce a pulsed laser output.
· Advantages: high pulse energy, high peak power, suitable for the removal of more stubborn dirt and coating. The wavelength is 1064nm, the absorption rate of gold material is higher, and the cleaning effect is better. By adjusting the pulse width, frequency and other parameters, to adapt to different cleaning needs.
3. Excimer Lasers:
· How it works: Use excimer gas to generate laser light under the action of a high voltage electric field.
· Advantages: The output laser wavelength is mainly in the ultraviolet band, the photon energy is high, and it has a good cleaning effect for some materials with weak absorption of laser energy, such as plastic, rubber, etc. It can achieve high-precision cleaning, which has advantages for the cleaning of micro-structures and fine surfaces.
4. Carbon Dioxide Lasers:
· Working principle: carbon dioxide gas as the working material, through the discharge excitation to produce laser.
· Advantages: large power, can output higher energy, suitable for large area cleaning and deep cleaning of materials. For some materials with good absorption of infrared laser, such as wood, paper, plastic, etc., it has a good cleaning effect.
5. MOPA Pulse Exciter:
· Working principle: The resonator cavity of the MOPA fiber laser system itself is an optical fiber, which generates a low-power laser through the main oscillator, and then amplifies the signal light through the power amplifier.
· Advantages: The parameter adjustment dimension is higher, the scope is wider, the adaptability is stronger, the process window interval is larger, and the surface cleaning of various materials is satisfied. With high laser energy margin, laser cleaning equipment can be upgraded.
6. UV Laser:
· Working principle: Ultraviolet lasers used for laser micro-processing mainly include excimer lasers and all-solid-state lasers.
· Advantages: short wavelength, high single-photon energy, can directly break the chemical bond between materials, the material in the form of gas or particles is peeled off the surface, the heat affected zone generated during processing is small, has a unique advantage in micro-manufacturing.
7. Continuous Fiber Lasers:
· Working principle: The pump light emitted by the pump source is coupled into the gain medium through a mirror, Because the gain medium is the rare earth element doped fiber, the pump light is absorbed. The rare earth ion absorbed the photon energy has the energy level transition and realizes the population inversion. After the inversion, the particle passes through the resonant cavity, jumps back to the ground state from the excited state, releases the energy, and forms the stable laser output.
· Advantages: continuous light, suitable for some large steel structures, pipelines, etc. Due to large volume and fast heat dissipation, the substrate damage requirements are not high.
Each laser has its own specific application scenarios and advantages, and choosing the right laser can improve cleaning efficiency and effectiveness while reducing costs and environmental impact.
