The laser industry has revolutionized many domains of modern life in the past half century. At first, it opened new ways to perform basic research by enabling a variety of scientific techniques that improved our understanding of the universe – from probing the atomic structure of molecules to measuring the distance to the moon. Later, it had changed the telecommunication industry by allowing vast transmission of data at the speed of light, promoting the internet revolution. In between, it also modified and significantly improved...
Articles
A new measurement procedure allows for the fast and contact-free measurement of the focused laser beam. At the same time, modern measuring devices have Profinet interfaces and allow the processes to be documented. These are enormous advantages, especially in times of just-in-time production
Automated laser welding is a big topic in modern production and more and more new applications are being developed. Be it pairing materials that were previously considered to be non-weldable, complex...
Introduction
Measuring the performance of your laser is vital to understanding its behavior and maintaining the processes that involve it. But familiarizing yourself with the products which perform the measurements can be a little overwhelming at first. This article discusses some tips to remember when setting up these products on your laser for the first time.
Recently, I had the opportunity to perform a product demonstration for a prospect. I’d been in field sales for Ophir...
Optimizing quality processes with the Ophir Near Field Analyzer
Introduction
VCSELs are used in diverse commercial, industrial and consumer device applications. The latest developments of the technology have paved the way to state-of-the-art 3D sensing applications. Combining different testing techniques for optical quality control and characterization – such as VCSEL optical power and energy output measurement, as well as far- and near-field beam analysis...
Introduction
The development of remote material processing techniques requires increasing the accuracy of the process to permit creating smaller features. Laser systems, used for various industrial applications like material processing and micromachining, require small focal spots and at the same time, greater focal lengths. To achieve that, lasers systems combining larger beams, and lower M2, combined with longer focal length lenses are used. This results in smaller focal spots at longer distances from the laser and Rayleigh...
More than 400 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. For them, the ability to measure blood glucose levels non-invasively (without piercing the skin) would be an enormous relief. Thanks to a patented development by DiaMonTech AG, this dream could soon come true for many people. The technology, which uses an infrared quantum cascade laser, is already available as a desktop device. But a smartphonesized instrument is soon to follow. In order to achieve this miniaturization without loss of quality, it is necessary to detect even minute...
Over the past several years, the fields of aesthetic medicine, surgery and cosmetics have been revolutionized by laser technology. With the development of their innovative laser systems, Asclepion Laser Technologies contributes greatly to patient well-being and faster healing. A consistent measurement strategy, effective testing processes and first-class measuring devices guarantee the high quality of the company's manufacturing at all times. For decades, Asclepion has relied on Ophir measuring technology from MKS Instruments to check...
Why does an individual calibration pay off?
Measurement devices for lasers are used in many different applications and industries, which means a vast amount of calibration regulations. While regular calibrations are mandatory in the medical sector, they tend to be neglected in other industries. It's important to understand that calibration not only ensures the quality of the measurement in terms of repeatability; the individual calibration of a measurement device can also increase its absolute measurement accuracy. Let us...
The laser is a very powerful and universal tool. It has found its way into many processes across all industries, including medical applications where the number of use cases continues to grow. Reliability and safety demands are placing high levels of responsibility on manufacturers of laser systems. To ensure the high quality of each laser system, thorough end-of-line testing is mandatory before a laser system is delivered. Nevertheless, as with many industries today, competition is high and manufacturers are seeking to more cost-effectively...
Know Your Laser Beam – Achieve Reproducibility
Laser-based additive manufacturing has transformed many industrial processes. But still, one of the most challenging tasks associated with the technology is to ensure reproducibility from one layer to another, between multiple laser sources within the same machine, and from one machine to the next.
The good news is that MKS Instruments has developed a variety of devices especially for additive manufacturing,...
As the development of new UV LED sources continues at an ever-growing pace, so do the industrial applications that utilize them. UV LEDs are being put to work in various industrial processes, medical applications, and – especially due to COVID-19 – increasingly used to develop solutions for disinfection purposes. Efficient utilization of the UV radiation requires good measurement tools. However, accurate light measurement in this spectral range presents challenges, such as how to accurately measure the irradiance if the...
The Concept:
Ophir customers often need to connect different optical components together to create an optimal setup to best meet their needs. In order to do this, Ophir provides mutual interconnections between different Ophir products via adapters with various threads, designed to exactly fit required optical path distances for each device. This is an integrated solution, prealigned and ready to use.
Our line of Beam Profiler cameras and sensors of various formats can be...
Thermal sensors can be used over many years without any repair if they are used in a correct laser optical setup. However, this is exactly where the challenge begins. Experienced service technicians from Ophir's calibration laboratories around the globe repeatedly see sensors where incorrect usage had lead to early wear. The experts have briefly summarized the four most common causes that significantly influence the measurement accuracy of thermal sensors, as well as corresponding preventive measures.
...Since Columbia University graduate student Gordon Gould and Bell Laboratories scientists Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow (among others) coined the term LASER in the 1950's, applications of the laser have seemed limitless. Working with these new discoveries had to be exciting, but applying hundreds of kilowatts of laser power, like the ones being used in directed energy laser systems, wasn't even something that could be fathomed at the time.
The application of massive amounts...
VCSELs, LEDs, edge emitting, and fiber lasers are used in many sensitive applications within fast-growing markets. To guarantee the high quality of the devices, it is essential to analyze the beam profile, but those wide, divergent beams place specific requirements on the measurement system. On the one hand, the apertures of conventional beam profilers are too small to collect the entire spot of large or divergent light sources. On the other hand, diverging beams cannot be accurately measured with regular detectors because the quantum...
The Ophir® BeamSquared system measures the propagation characteristics of CW and pulsed laser completely automated. It’s compact design and its flexibility in terms of wavelength – it is suited for measuring UV to NIR to Telecom wavelength – makes it a powerful measurement tool in many laser applications. As with every highly precise laser measurement device its biggest enemy is Optics contamination due to dust and debris. Also, to ensure optimal measurement conditions an accurate offset correction is essential. Here...
Pulsed lasers are as popular as continuous wave (CW) lasers. The physics of many lasers lends itself to pulsed operation, and just as important, so do many applications. Pulse widths are becoming very short, reaching femto-seconds. When concentrating the laser energy into such short pulses and onto a small spot, even low pulse energy - in the μJ range - is sufficient to melt, cut, ablate, and weld materials without the effect of slowly heating and damaging adjacent areas. While pulsed lasers exist in many wavelengths from UV to IR, UV lasers...
Laser light and the automotive industry are tied closely together. Both laser-based manufacturing and laser-based sensing play a key role in today’s mobility. If you use a laser in materials processing, the processes can only sustainably turn out high-quality products if the laser beam is of reliably high quality. Laser-based sensing applications such as LiDAR and gestures recognition can only guarantee safe usage as long as the laser beam consistently meets specs.
Ophir's line of fast photodetectors expands your measurement capability to high speed temporal characterizations of laser pulses. Let us explain how.
Figure 1. The new Ophir Fast Photodiode Detectors series.
The vast majority of lasers used today in industrial applications are pulsed...
Beam attenuation is critical because lasers designed for cutting sheet steel will have no trouble cutting through a beam profiler if the beam power isn't attenuated.
Beam profiling characterizes the size, shape, quality, and focal position of a laser beam. Whether the application is a few milliWatts in power or several kWatts, beam profiling is used to test optical designs, verify laser performance, or monitor the performance of laser systems.
...Introduction
Since cavemen first figured out how to throw rocks and shoot arrows, our ability to precisely deliver power has come a long way.
High-power laser beams, by delivering a lot of power into a small and precisely controlled space, now help us manufacture components that would have been difficult - if not impossible - using purely mechanical means. Automotive and aircraft manufacture, shipbuilding, and similar heavy-industry applications have been dramatically changed...
When purchasing a laser, learning how to apply, troubleshoot, and evaluate that device is very important.
Given the pace at which technology advances, there always seems to be a learning curve. With the abundance of consumer electronics available, there typically is no right or wrong way to use these devices — the choice usually comes down to the method that best suits the end user. However, when purchasing a highly advanced device for use in the workplace, such as a laser,...
The importance of precisely measuring LiDAR parameters and its impact on the performance and construction of LiDAR systems
Many experts believe LiDAR is one of the pivotal sensing technologies required to make partial to full autonomous vehicles possible. The most promising way seems to be combining LiDAR with other detection/ranging systems like cameras and radar products into a suite of detection & ranging systems allowing autonomous vehicles to use at least two independent...
Measurement considerations of disinfection methods based on UV radiation for fighting COVID-19 in the current pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on disinfection technology. UV radiation is a promising approach to prevent airborne infections and infections caused by exposure to contaminated surfaces. It has long been known as an option to inactivate pathogenic microorganisms, especially for water disinfection. Today, it is increasingly used in surface disinfection...
The laser seam welding of sheets of zinc-coated steel – a combination of metals with disparate melting and evaporation properties – used to be a major challenge for the automotive industry. But Volkswagen AG is pursuing a promising approach with multi-focal laser welding: A newly developed process enables significantly higher welding speeds than is otherwise possible with conventional mono-focal laser beam welding systems. After a development period of just three years, the process was registered for a patent. The development of...