laser burner question for a newbee

[bbideas]

I just found this site and thought It would be a good start to finding a answer to what I am looking for . I am looking for a laser that would be as compact as possible not portable I would be able to supply steady power for it. It would have to be able to burn through fiberglass that has not been cured so it would be more of a fabric still. The fiberglass would be about 4 mm in width and 1 mm thick it would only need to do it about a dozen times a minute quickly hopefully like 1 to 3 second burn time. I know this is a lot of info but hopefully someone can help me out thanks Bob

 

[pocketfluff]

CO2 laser?

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

A 40 watt CO2 focused may do it. It might depend on the glass substrate.
You will need to experiment. I don't think that the reds and greens many of us use will meet your needs.
Mike

 

[xJumper]

Would this fiber stuff be wet when your trying to burn throught it and how much money are you willing to spend exactly and how much time do you want to spend holding the laser their for the hole to burn throught.

Normaly for something like this you would use OEM Lab laser but since you said as compact as possible well that narrows stuff down.

Your probably going to be looking at 300mw to 500mw lasers 300 being the cheepest and slowest and 500 being most expensive but fastest and most durable for the task.

Let me tell you before I post the links that these things dont come cheep and if your only looking for hole drilling you might aswell buy a drill.

Here is a list of the best power for the best price I found and it comes with free stuff for protection and a charger with LI-MH rechargeble batteries so you dont spend so much money on batteries.

http://www.dragonlasers.com/catalog/Hulk-Ultra-price0-p-1-c-265.html

But if you need more power than this go with Lasers Modules that the site sells to and they offer more power for less due to the fact that you dont need it to be compact anymore.

Here is the list: http://www.dragonlasers.com/catalog/Laser-Module-price0-p-1-c-270.html

And the most powerfull one is this: http://www.dragonlasers.com/catalog/532nm-1000mW-Green-Laser-p-16215.html

Keep in mind that it may seem expensive but if the 1000mW one were to be portable it would cost double.

 

[bbideas]

First I want to say thankyou for the replies. the fiber would probally not be wet due to flamibilty although I have a few ideas to get around this depending on amount of time needed to make the cut. Ultimately the price is not that much of a factor. More so in expermenting in the begining. Could someone explain pros and cons of co2 and diode lasers. Not sure if the process I am trying would matter. which would be more like cutting through one peice of fiber lets say around 2 to 4 mm wide 1 to 2 mm thick intermitentely

 

[pocketfluff]

A decent co2 will get you tens of watts of power but will be completely invisible. It will also need water cooling and runs off a HV power supply.

I'm not sure how well any diode laser close to the visible wavelength would burn fiberglass but there are some pretty darn powerful 808nm diodes on ebay and some are ready to go with the beam exiting a fiber optic.

 

[Things]

Well a co2 would be your best bet, they come in high powers and should cut through fibre. The only setback is the water cooling, which would require a fairly large space for a decent runtime.

 

[Things]

Welcome to the forum BTW

 

[xJumper]

Remember guys he wants something compact, something that you can fit in your pocket so diode lasers are what he needs and 4mm with and 1mm thick even thought its fibre whatever its still not that hard.


I realy want to help you out as much as I can but theirs still some questions you will have to anser so I can realy pin point what you need.

What color is this fiber glass going to be and how much do you need to cut, are you just trying to put a hole throught it or your going to engrave something big?

What do you mean by steady power stream, all the lasers here are batterie operated if you want to fit em in your pocket but with LI-ION Rechargables that they come with that should be no problem with wasting money on batts and you can charge more than one at the same time so once one pair dies another one is ready. But once again if your looking for something to plug in than you need a Laser Moduel.

 

[pocketfluff]

I am looking for a laser that would be as compact as possible not portable I would be able to supply steady power for it.

Yeah......