Laser beam application with high power fiber lasers

With the new industrial high power fiber lasers we have already stepped into a new generation of laser applications. These lasers are smaller, better, more cost-effective, and offer a processing "on the fly." Of utmost importance is their excellent beam quality which enables us to reduce the size of the focussing head including the scanning mirrors. With the reduced mass of the mirrors we can reach scanning frequencies up to 1.5 kHz and in special configurations up to 4 kHz. Using such mirrors with this high beam quality we can shape the key hole geometry, and thus it is possible to decrease the keyhole spiking, which always occur in the case of deep penetration welding. We can generate very thin and deep welding seams, which we have only experienced with electron beam welding. The excellent beam quality of the fiber lasers offers us a lot of new applications from deep penetration welding to high speed welding. By using beam scanning we are able to easily change the beam and the seam geometry. Furthermore, it is possible to work with this kind of laser from a distance of some meters between focussing/scanning head and the work piece. This technique is called remote processing or processing "on the fly." The excellent beam quality also enables us to cut very precisely, and due to the small cutting widths with a very high speed. In this case the main problem is that the roughness of the cutting edge increases a little bit. One reason for this is that we cannot blow out the mold as easily as we can do it with higher cutting widths. There are also polarized fiber lasers on the market where we can use the Brewster effect for different applications. The presentation will cover some physical basics including different industrial applications.