Laser Cutting
Laser beam shapers and mirrors for precise cutting edges
Laser cutting is a thermal separation process, its effectiveness and precision can hardly be surpassed in industrial production. Whether cutting metal, wood, glass or plastic: The fast and gentle laser cutting produces extremely precise cutting edges, even in the production of complex components. The optimal material utilization of laser cutting enables a maximum workpiece yield, which saves costs in material procurement. The extremely precise results of laser cutting consequence in the fact that post-processing of a workpiece produced is hardly necessary, if at all. The results are short machining time with perfect dimensional accuracy at the same time.
The functional principle of laser cutting
The high energy density of the laser beam is used for laser cutting. The beam is focused by a lens system on a very small part of the workpiece. This warms the material to ignition, melting or evaporation temperature. If the material is penetrated, the laser travels along the specified workpiece contour. The actual laser cutting process begins, guided by state-of-the-art technology and special software. Different lasers are used for different materials. A distinction is made between pulsed lasers, which emit the light energy as light flashes, and continuous wave lasers, which emit a continuous laser beam.
Optical components for effective bundling of laser light
A wide variety of optical components are required to generate the laser beam. These include, for example, two flat or curved mirrors enclosing an active laser medium (solid, liquid or gaseous), the so-called resonator. High reflection values, which are essential for the generation of the laser beam, can be guaranteed by high-quality mirror elements as well as reflective or metallic coatings. Thermal stability, constantly high reflectance and very wide wavelength ranges of the mirrors lead to optimum results in optical systems. The laser thus achieves fast and consistently very good performance when cutting various materials.
asphericon offers a wide range of high-quality lenses for your special applications that meet the high laser requirements. Also discover our laser beam shaper a|AiryShape for converting collimated Gaussian beams into different Top-Hat Foci (Top-Hat, Donut, Beam waist).
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