A MOPA laser source is a great way to expand your marking capabilities and improve the quality of your marking results on certain plastics and metals. With a conventional fiber laser, markings on certain metals and plastics (especially if they are dark in color) can be less homogeneous and rich in contrast. The MOPA laser source is a great solution in these cases because it allows you to select pulse durations, which translates into a wider range of laser parameters and more marking options. As a result, the MOPA can mark plastics with higher-contrast and more legible results, mark (anodized) aluminum in black, and create reproducible colors on steel.
Advantages of MOPA lasers
Selectable pulse durations not only improve marking results on certain metals and plastics, but also provide more marking capabilities. With the MOPA laser, the pulse durations can be set to predefined values between 4 and 200 ns. Because it offers such a wide range of pulse durations, the MOPA is one of the most flexible lasers on the market. It can simulate the properties of conventional fiber lasers (relatively long pulses) and those of classical solid state lasers (relatively short pulses) such as Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4 (vanadate). You can also produce qualitatively equivalent markings with the MOPA laser partially faster than with the conventional fiber laser.
Using short pulses and lower pulse energy heat the material less, and the area of the heat affected zone is reduced. This results in more advantages and possibilities for laser marking metals and plastics:
- Less burning/melting in the edge area of metal engravings
- Less heat development during annealing markings on metal, which leads to a better corrosion behavior
- Controlled melting of plastics
- Less foaming with plastics
- More homogeneous and sometimes higher-contrast markings on some plastics
The advantages of the conventional fiber laser sources remain unchanged:
- maintenance-free
- long service life
- air-cooled
- cost-effective
Lesley Savage –
Amazing! Can “laser printing” many color on stainless steel, good tech. support.
Jacques –
Sehr schnelle Lieferung alles bestens geklappt.
Justin Rossetti –
Tested it on some 304 stainless and 6061 aluminum. Fast and a very crisp image. You can adjust frequency, speed, power, and number of passes to achieve shallow or decently deep engravings. Of course this isn’t going to be as deep as CNC engraving but it’s noticeable to the touch and you can keep running passes to make it deeper. With stainless, you can play with the settings to get some colored engravings as the material heats up. I
Louis –
Une machine de gravure de très grande qualité, autant de par sa conception que des résultats obtenus sur du métal (acier, inox, alu). Le prix reste très élevé mais le rendu en vaut la peine. Comme d’autres l’ont évoqué: le logiciel fourni (et le seul utilisable avec cette machine) est assez brouillon et possède quelques bugs mais qui donne de bons résultats une fois pris en main. La surface de gravure reste assez petite mais suffisante pour beaucoup d’usages.