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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

how much power laser modules I need?

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Jul 10, 2012
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Hi everybody.

I want use laser to burn the thin film black lacquer that covered on copper foil. maybe someone know what I want to do --- to etch PCB. simply say, make the lacquer gasify, and expose the copper so that the hydrochloric acid can only etching the exposed copper.
maybe the black lacquer is not a good choice..

the color of laser, red or green, even the UV?

but I don't know how much power of laser modules I shuold use. anybody has similar experience or advice(suggest)?

sorry for my bad english.

Thanks any replys..
 
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DrSid

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My 1.5W 445nm can do that. It can peel paint of soda cans for example.
405nm can burn better even if it is available in lower powers, as it can be focused better, as it is single mode. But then, you don't need terribly small dot. I guess you want to mount it on some plotter-like device right ? Then more power will allow you use thicker 'stroke' and burn faster. So I'd say >1W 445nm is the way to go.
If you use black lacquer, any color would work, but 445nm is the most powerful diode with reasonably focusable beam at the moment. Green is for sure too expansive, and red too weak.
 
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dear DrSid, very very thanks your reply...

it seems that 445nm laser is blue. how about its price in your country?

yeah, I need a plotter, but I think I can made one for myself, I'm a electronic design engineer, but I almost has not any knowledge about laser, I means large power great than 1mW.:)

maybe I realy need terribly small sport of the laser focus on lacquer. beacause I need etched about 8~10mil space between two pads or wire.

btw, is it will produce large amounts of smoke?
 

DrSid

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Not sure what is mil.

As for the smoke, depends on the lacquer. You can always put a blower nearby to blow the smoke away.

You will also want some case enclosing the device completely (with some safety switches), otherwise you will need protection goggles, as 1W laser is class 4, ie. even looking at the dot may be harmful to your sight. You will need the goggles anyway, for testing and so on, but you won't need them when actually using the device.

As for price, my country does not matter. You will need the diode from this forum members, they are around $50 (Buy/sell/trade section of the forum). These diodes are harvested from video projectors, and cannot be bought directly. There are also some Chinese companies who harvest them and sell them, but forum members are much better choice.
You will need good heatsink, generally piece of metal with hole in it, you will need driver with modulation, and then some smaller parts like module (diode holder) and optics. All together it should be around $100, and everything can be bought here.

405nm diodes have similar prices, they are just a bit weaker, around 800mW.

445nm are often pushed to 2W these days, and some variants even to 3W.

Check 445nm forum, or for very basic overview check 445nm lasers in my sig. Though there are no burning videos. Such videos are easy to find on youtube .. just enter 445nm.
 
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1 inch = 1000 mil, sorry I forget the whole word how to spell...milometer?

according your suggestion, I decide to buy 1w 445nm laser modules, I also lookup the price, a set of them, include power suply and laser and its driver close to 1/4 my monthly salary. it is not cheap.

laser diode or laser modules? let me think...

How ever, thanks your help indeed.
 

DrSid

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Laser module may mean more things unfortunately. It may either be complete blackbox with wires on one side and output aperture on the other side. Or it can be just diode with housing and optics. Or just the housing with optics without diode .. or even housing without optics.
For pointers we usually buy 'Aixiz module' .. which is diode housing with very basic optics. Diode is pressed into it. This 'module' is then inserted into heatsink and most of the time better optics are used to replace the default ones.

Spot size, even for close focus, can be roughly determined as distance * divergence. Divergence of lens usually mounted into Aixiz modules is about 2mRad.
In other words, at 1 inch distance such dot would be 2 thousands of inch .. in other words two mils. Of course the lens must be focused properly. At 2 inches the spot would be 4 mils, and so on. You could achieve smaller dots by using larger lens (tricky, right ?) but I don't know any larger optics usable with these diodes. It would call for large experimenting .. which means it would be expensive.

Just one more thing. This 445nm diodes do not have round dot. Its more like small rectangle, let's say 4:1 aspect ratio. So the vertical 'strokes' will have different width compared to horizontal ones. But who knows, the temperature may be high enough to 'blur' the edges of burned area, so this might not be an issue. It could be taken care of by specific programming, of course.

Btw. wait a bit more, don't take my words as law. While I have some lasers, I did not mount them on machine, nor connect them to computer, or anything. Pity more senior members don't react, but you must give it some time.
 
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wow, many question I want to asked has been answer by you.
thanks a lot.

btw, I found a cheap modules, only about 1/4 price of aixiz's 1W modules. I will buy one to test. now I'm making a equipment, let it carry the modules to walk a straight line...if it can let me satisfied, all the left work will be easy, lol....
 




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