High power diode lasers are finding use in materials processing applications including additive manufacturing, cladding, brazing and welding
to achievements made by EU research projects, higher brightness systems – operating at kilowatt powers – are finding their way into the marketplace and beginning to compete with fibre lasers in terms of beam quality. ‘System designers made a huge progress in combining these high-brightness and high-power diodes to achieve efficient and complete high brightness systems,’ said Röhner. Therefore, in the not-so-distant future,
and if factors such as brightness and cost are properly addressed, ‘there is a high likelihood that diode lasers will dominate the material processing market,’ Röhner remarked.
“We are not yet at a level where a diode laser concept can compete with fibre laser costs for metal cutting”
The main challenge associated with
improving the quality of the laser beam – which includes parameters like brightness – is that putting too much effort into combining diode lasers – to increase power – while maintaining the highest possible beam quality will add cost, for example in the beam shaping optics. ‘It is important that the increased brightness will not result in increased costs, which would not be accepted by the market,’ said Röhner. However, after heavy investment from diode laser manufacturers, in addition
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Limited by cost For lower brightness industrial applications, the diode laser is already the tool of choice, according to Dr Jens Biesenbach, technology director for the diode laser business unit at Coherent Dilas. Powder or wire-fed cladding is a large market for multi-kilowatt direct diode lasers, Biesenbach noted, and diode laser- based brazing in car body applications is in the ‘comfort zone’ of industrial usage. Hardening is growing slowly; however, a lack of market knowledge on the advantages of laser heat treatment – like the ability to use closed-loop control when hardening areas that are sensitive to overheating, like edges, corners and areas around holes – still limits its wider use as a substitute for induction hardening. On the other hand, the softening of hot pressed steel is gaining momentum, Biesenbach added.
The driver for the higher acceptance of diode lasers in industrial applications has been cost, Biesenbach explained. ‘Downward pressure on fibre laser costs forced the diode laser pump technology… to become more economical. Also, the scaling to higher volume production for fibre laser pumps, combined with production automation and high reliability chip development, made the diode laser more affordable,’ Biesenbach continued. ‘Paired with high efficiency, almost no maintenance, and compact size, the diode laser became an attractive tool.’ But for very high-power, high-brightness
applications like metal cutting, currently, a fibre laser offers ‘unmatched beam quality’, Biesenbach said. ‘The fibre laser so far is always the “sharper tool”.’ Simply put, with increasing powers, it is g
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