Re: Laser links ?

Nada... the key word is vaporized, not just melted,
and RF as in approx 26Mhz. at 10KW, not microwaves. Common in
indrustrial heating equipment.

Tom M.

> CO2 is continuous as you say. The jet of gas is used to remove the

material

> from the cut, like the oxygen in an oxy/acet torch or the nitrogen

in a

> plasma cutter. Without the gas you would need one super huge laser

to make

> the cut and then it'd be of very poor quality. The laser is simply

there to

> heat the part. Indeed, I am curious as to why they are used in

place of

> plasma cutters on metals. The only slight advantage they may have

is a

> tighter heat dissapation area. Obviously they come into their own

when

> cutting non-metals since the part need not be conductive. In these

cases you

> must use an inert gas to stop the material burning in the air, now

like the

> shrouding on a MIG gun as well.
>
> It is very possible to excite CO2 using RF and microwaves, in fact,

I have

> been reading a discussion on doing this since microwaves are so

easily

> obtainable at the dump. It'd be a good way of building a cheap

laser gantry.

> However, I have spoken to guys about this who question it's

availablility to

> hobbyists. First you have a number of problems with wave nodes etc

and phase

> differences when coupling emittors. Second, you need a seriously

high

> microwave intensity to make a gas under moderate pressure brake

down into a

> cold discharging plasma (What you need for a CO2 laser).
>
> This is slowly drifting away from the CNC topic but I must say I'm

posting

> this junk because a laser gantry is a project that'd definitly be

open for

> some hobby CNC guys to work with.
>
> John H.