Re: Laser Beam Diameter

From: David K. Leigh (dkleigh@harvest-tech.com)
Date: Sat Apr 08 2000 - 00:15:49 EEST


The physical diameter does not change (or shouldn't depending on optics). But, the effective diameter does. If you were to turn the laser on in 1 spot for a full second and measure the melted powder, it would be significantly larger than the measured spot size. There is no easy answer to the smallest size, but we've never been able to build 0.020" in the X-Y plane with repeatable success (there are exceptions depending upon orientation) or 0.008-0.010" in Z (living hinges).

****************************************************
David K. Leigh ph(254) 933-1000
Harvest Technologies fax(254) 298-0125
dkleigh@harvest-tech.com

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: J Mitchell
  To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi
  Sent: Friday, April 07, 2000 2:41 PM
  Subject: Laser Beam Diameter

  For a 50 Watt CO2 laser, used on the SLS, does the laser beam diameter change at a smaller laser power? Or is the beam diameter constant at 0.016" from 0 to 50 Watts?

  J Mitchell

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:03:13 EEST