What Is The Value Of Beam Diagnostics?

Industrial Applications Of Seeing The Laser Beam 

One of Spiricon's sales representatives recently gave a demonstration of the LBA-100A Advanced Laser Beam Analyzer on an industrial YAG laser. The customer has 10 YAG lasers for cutting and welding. They were getting unacceptable variations in the quality of the trim from two of the machines, and wanted to see if the LBA-100A would help them quantify their beam quality. Following is his report on the demonstration:

"We measured the beam after the point of focus, as it diverges, to an approximate diameter of 1/4". This gave us excellent results. On one laser giving problems we could see a near Gaussian distribution with a clip etch on one side. Even though the beam appeared uniform to them under viewing of an IR viewer, and burn paper showed nearly round patterns, it was obvious with the LBA-100A that there were problems. On a second laser system where they were seeing good cuts, we saw a perfectly uniform, near Gaussian beam".

Profile 1. Beam clipped by misaligned turning mirror.

"The first laser was then tuned by the operator. After a few minutes of set up we quickly identified the problem as a turning mirror misalignment in the beam delivery system. The laser technician, was able to solve the problem in less than a minute after viewing the image on the LBA-100A. Normally this would take him anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to diagnose the problem, if he could ever properly identify it at all".

"Profiles 1 and 2 show the difference between the "before and after" images on their YAG cutting laser. The power readings are identical and the spots appear identical on the burn paper and through the IR viewer. However, you will note that the first image is clipped and off center while the other is perfectly centered".

Profile 2. Beam with turning mirror adjusted by laser tech.

"We then tested a second troublesome laser used for welding. Its initial beam pattern is shown in profile 3. As you can see, even though this laser is supposed to be operating TEM 00 mode, it is actually operating in TEM 01. Profile 4 shows the results after the attempt to re-tune the laser, adjusting both apertures and front and rear mirrors. Note that although it is not yet TEM 00, it is closer. More extensive maintenance is needed on this laser".

Profile 3. Beam with turning mirror adjusted by laser technician.

"This laser has been producing bad welds for the last couple of weeks. By using the LBA-100A for approximately 10 minutes the laser technician could easily diagnose that he needed to align the system using the auto collimator, and check the alignment of all optical elements in the laser cavity, including the laser rod. When viewed with the IR viewer there appeared to be only one bright spot in the laser field, not the two distinct energy centers".

Profile 4. Beam with initial cavity realignment. Additional realignment required.

The above is just one of the hundreds of examples of customers being able to greatly improve laser performance just by "seeing" the beam.

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