As its name suggests, the CO2 laser uses a carbon dioxide based gas mixture. This gas, which is usually a mixture of CO2, nitrogen and helium, is electrically excited to produce a laser beam. Solid state lasers are divided into fiber lasers or disk lasers, and their power range is similar to that of CO ν lasers. Like the CO ν laser, the same name component describes the laser active medium. In this case, the active medium is solid glass or crystal in the shape of optical fiber or disk.
On the CO2 laser, the laser beam is guided through the optical path by the optical device, while for the fiber laser, the beam is generated in the activated fiber and guided to the cutting head of the machine through the conductive fiber. In addition to the different laser media, another most important difference is the wavelength: the wavelength of fiber laser is 1 µ m, while the wavelength of CO Ω laser is 10 µ M. The wavelength of fiber laser is short, so the absorption rate is high when cutting steel, stainless steel and aluminum. Better absorption means less heating of the material to be processed, which is a major advantage.
Co Ω technology is widely applicable to the processing of different kinds of materials and different plate thicknesses. Optical fiber laser cutting equipment is suitable for processing from thin to thick steel plate, stainless steel, aluminum and non-ferrous metal (red copper and brass) plates.