Which is Better: CO₂ or Fiber Laser?

Fiber Laser

The meaning of fiber laser

Fiber laser describes a laser utilizing rare earth component doped glass fiber as a gain tool.

Based on fiber amplifiers, fiber lasers can be developed.

Principle of fiber laser

Under the action of pump light, high power density is very easily developed in fiber optics, resulting in the “particle number inversion” of the laser working material’s laser power level.

The laser oscillation outcome can be formed when the favorable comments loop (creating a resonator) is correctly added.

Applications of fiber laser

Fiber laser has a large range of applications, consisting of laser fiber interaction, laser room long-distance interaction, industrial shipbuilding, vehicle manufacturing, laser engraving, laser noting, laser cutting, printing roller, steel and non-metal exploration, reducing, welding (brazing, quenching, cladding, and deep welding), military and national defense safety and security, medical instruments as well as equipment, and also massive framework construction, as the pump source of other lasers, etc.

Kinds of fiber laser

There are numerous kinds of category approaches for fiber lasers. The more typical are categorized by working mode, band range, and dielectric doped rare-earth aspects.

By working mode

• Constant fiber laser (laser cutting, welding, cladding).
• Quasi-continuous fiber laser (place welding, joint welding, drilling).
• Pulsed fiber laser (material micromachining, scalpel, microscope, laser measurement).

By band range

• Mid-infrared fiber laser (clinical laser source, laser advice).
• Eco-friendly fiber laser (medical picture diagnosis, holographic projection).

By doped rare-earth components

• Ytterbium-doped fiber laser (industrial processing, clinical therapy, national defense).
• Fiber laser with erbium doping (laser environmental monitoring).
• Fiber laser with TM doping (laser fine cutting, laser hemostasis).

Lasers are typically called according to a couple of these three groups.

Fiber lasers can be used in a variety of ways. Various subdivided lasers have various features as well as ideal application fields.

For example, the mid-infrared band is risk-free for human eyes and can be strongly absorbed in water. It is an ideal medical laser source;

Erbium-doped fiber is widely used in the field of fiber optics communication because of its ideal wavelength.

Due to its visibility, the eco-friendly laser is crucial in entertainment and forecast.

Application layout of the laser class category corresponding to pertinent markets.

CO₂ Laser

The CO₂ laser is a type of molecular laser. It is one of the common high-power CW lasers. The major product is the carbon dioxide molecule.

The primary framework of th_e CO₂ laser includes laser tube, optical resonator, power supply, and pump. The main feature is high result power and constant procedure, but the framework is intricate, the quantity is large, and the maintenance is difficult.

Understanding particle number inversion is crucial to the luminescence of carbon dioxide lasers.

The working materials in the carbon dioxide laser consist of CO₂, nitrogen, and helium. After the DC power supply is input, the nitrogen particles in the combined gas will be delighted by electron influence. When the thrilling nitrogen molecules collide with carbon dioxide particles, they move energy to the CO2 molecules. Therefore, CO₂ particles transition from reduced power to high power degree, forming fragment number inversion and releasing laser.

• Nitrogen molecules collide with carbon dioxide molecules after excitation, so that carbon dioxide is excited separately.

• The excited carbon dioxide molecule jumps down and emits a laser.

Fiber Laser vs. CO₂ Laser

Optical fiber and CO₂ lasers have their very own advantages, as well as different lasers must be chosen according to different needs.

Specific application requirements for the cutting innovation that is commonly made use of currently have their advantages and downsides. They can not entirely replace each other but need to complement and coexist.

Because of the type of processing materials, as a result of the absorption impact, fiber lasers are not appropriate for reducing non-metallic products. At the same time, standard CO₂ lasers are not ideal for reducing the reflectivity of high-reflectivity materials such as copper and lightweight aluminum.

Regarding reducing rates, CO₂ has advantages in sheet thickness > 6mm, while fiber laser cuts sheet much faster.

Workpiece infiltration is needed before laser cutting, and the opening speed of CO₂ is significantly faster than that of fiber laser.

In terms of cutting area and high quality, the CO₂ laser is much better than the fiber laser all at once.

Comparison between fiber lasers and carbon dioxide lasers

	Fiber laser	CO2 laser
Cutting material	Non metallic materials cannot be cut	High reflective materials have poor adaptability
Cutting speed	Obvious advantages below 3mm	>6mm, CO2  is more advantageous
Penetration efficiency	The speed is relatively slow	The greater the thickness, the more obvious the advantage
Section quality	Slightly worse	Better roughness and verticality

Fiber laser has higher light conversion effectiveness and also lower use price.

According to the computation, the usage price of fiber laser is 23.4 yuan/hour, the used price of CO₂ laser is 39.1 yuan/hour, of which the power cost of fiber laser is 7 yuan/hour, the water cooling price is 8.4 yuan/hour, and other prices are 8 yuan/hour; the power cost of CO₂ laser is 21 yuan/hour, the water cooling price is 12.6 yuan/hour, and other prices are 5.5 yuan/hour.

Expense contrast between fiber laser and CO₂ laser

	Fiber Laser	CO2 Laser
Power (kw)	3	3
Light conversion efficiency	30%	10%
Power consumption (kw)	10	30
Electricity price (￥/kWh)	1	1
Load duration	70%	70%
Power cost (￥/hour)	7	21
Water cooling equipment power (kw)	12	18
Electricity price (￥/kWh)	1	1
Load duration	70%	70%
Water cooling cost (￥/hour)	8.4	12.6
Consumables cost (￥/hour)	3	2.5
Module consumption cost (￥/hour)	5
Media cost (￥/hour)		1
Conventional point solution (￥/hour)		2
Other costs (￥/hour)	8	5.5
Use cost (￥/hour)	23.4	39.1

Conclusion

Although each laser does have its own toughness and distinct usage cases, CO₂ is an older innovation, and fiber lasers are gaining market quickly as the innovation breakthroughs. With the speed benefits, virtually fifty percent of the operating costs, and three to 4 times better throughput than CO₂ lasers, the economic gains that can be gotten from using fiber lasers can be game-changing.