LASER SAFETY
POWER K
With lasers getting ever more powerful, Greg Blackman looks at the safety equipment needed to protect laser users
ilowatt-class lasers are becoming more common and readily available for manufacturing, and with
higher powers come more stringent safety precautions. At its latest technology open day in January, Trumpf UK was demonstrating an 8kW disk laser, using it to cut 40mm thick stainless steel. Te process could be seen through a protective window. It’s not just complete systems
where the power levels are rising; higher laser power in general is now much more affordable than it was in the past. ‘Even in laboratories, scientists might have a 1kW laser on an optical table,’ stated Paul Tozer, managing director of the UK branch of laser safety equipment supplier Lasermet. ‘In that sort of situation, there’s a serious safety issue that needs to be dealt with.’ Lasermet has built active safety
enclosures that fit on top of optical tables to contain the beam. ‘With a 1kW laser on that sort of size optical table you need to be looking at active guarding, because it will burn through 2mm of steel quite quickly because of the small beam diameter,’ Tozer said.
www.lasersystemseurope.com | @lasersystemsmag Te decision on whether to use an
active or passive safety system generally revolves around power and the size of the enclosure. (A passive system is able to dissipate the laser energy, whereas active protective equipment for higher powers contains a light detector linked to an interlock system, so that if the beam hits the enclosure the laser shuts down.) As a rough guide, Tozer said that active protection is required for more than 5kW of laser power for a
that sort of size optical table you need to be looking at active guarding
With a 1kW laser on
large enclosure, and more than 1kW for small enclosures. Te size of the enclosure determines, along with other parameters, the size of the beam when it hits the walls. Lasermet makes both passive and
active enclosures. Te Laser Castle is its passive enclosure, while the Laser Jailer is the active component for high power lasers. It also supplies the Glaser Jailer an active guarding window.
ISSUE 30 • SPRING 2016 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE 19 PROTECTIVE
Laservision/Pro-Lite
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