Industrial and Commercial
Industrial laser applications can be divided into two categories depending on the power of the laser: material processing and micro-material processing.
In material processing, lasers with average optical power above 1 kilowatt are used mainly for industrial materials processing applications. Beyond this power threshold there are thermal issues related to the optics that separate these lasers from their lower-power counterparts. Laser systems in the 50-300W range are used primarily for pumping, plastic welding and soldering applications. Lasers above 300W are used in brazing, thin metal welding, and sheet metal cutting applications. The required brightness (as measured in by the beam parameter product) is higher for cutting applications than for brazing and thin metal welding. High power applications, such as hardening, cladding, and deep penetrating welding, require multiple kW of optical power, and are used in a broad range of industrial processes.
Micro material processing is a category that includes all laser material processing applications under 1 kilowatt. The use of lasers in Micro Materials Processing has found broad application in the development and manufacturing of screens for smartphones, tablet computers, and LED TVs.
A detailed list of industrial and commercial laser applications includes:
- Laser cutting
- Laser welding
- Laser drilling
- Laser marking
- Laser cladding, a surface engineering process applied to mechanical components for reconditioning, repair work or hardfacing
- Photolithography
- Optical communications over optical fiber or in free space
- Laser peening
- Guidance systems (e.g., ring laser gyroscopes)
- Rangefinder / surveying,
- LIDAR / pollution monitoring,
- Digital minilabs
- Barcode readers
- Laser engraving of printing plate
- Laser bonding of additive marking materials for decoration and identification,
- Laser pointers
- Laser accelerometers
- OLED display manufacturing
- Holography
- Bubblegrams
- Optical tweezers
- Writing subtitles onto motion picture films.
- Power beaming, which is a possible solution to transfer energy to the climber of a Space elevator
- 3D laser scanners for accurate 3D measurement
- Laser line levels are used in surveying and construction. Lasers are also used for guidance for aircraft.
- Extensively in both consumer and industrial imaging equipment.
- In laser printers: gas and diode lasers play a key role in manufacturing high resolution printing plates and in image scanning equipment.
- Diode lasers are used as a lightswitch in industry, with a laser beam and a receiver which will switch on or off when the beam is interrupted, and because a laser can keep the light intensity over larger distances than a normal light, and is more precise than a normal light it can be used for product detection in automated production.
- Laser alignment
- Additive manufacturing
- plastic welding
In consumer electronics, telecommunications, and data communications, lasers are used as the transmitters in optical communications over optical fiber and free space.
- To store and retrieve data in optical discs
- Laser lighting displays (pictured) accompany many music concerts.
Read more about this topic: Laser Applications
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