In the past 10 years, laser technique has been gradually introduced in the production sector of different industries and becomes very popular. Laser engraving, laser cutting, laser welding, laser drilling, laser cleaning and other laser techniques are widely used in metal fabrication, advertising, toy, medicine, automobile, consumer electronics, communication, shipbuilding, aerospace and other sectors.
Laser generator can be classified into many different kinds based on laser power, wavelength and state. By wavelength, infrared laser is the most widely used type, especially in processing metal, glass, leather and fabric. Green laser can perform laser marking and engraving on glass, crystal, acrylic and other transparent materials. UV laser, however, can produce superior cutting and marking effect on plastic, paper box package, medical equipment and consumer electronics and becomes more and more popular.
The performance of UV laserThere are two kinds of UV lasers. One is solid-state UV laser and the other is gas UV laser. The gas UV laser is also known as excimer laser and it can be further developed to extreme UV laser which can be used in medical cosmetology and stepper which is the important tool for making integrated circuit.
The solid-state UV laser has 355nm wavelength and features short pulse, excellent light beam, high precision and high peak value. Comparing with green laser and infrared laser, UV laser has smaller heat affecting zone and has better absorption rate in different kinds of materials. Therefore, UV laser is also called “cold light source” and its processing is known as “cold processing.”
With the rapid development of ultra-short pulsed laser technique, solid-state picosecond UV laser and picosecond UV fiber laser have become quite mature and can achieve faster and more precise processing. However, since picosecond UV laser is very costly, the major application is still nanosecond UV laser.
Application of UV laserUV laser has the advantage that other laser sources don’t have. It can limit thermal stress, so that less damage will occur on the work piece which will stay intact. UV laser can have a fantastic processing effect on inflammable material, hard and brittle material, ceramics, glass, plastic, paper and many different kinds of non-metal materials.
For some soft plastic and special polymers that are used to make FPC can only be micro-machined by UV laser instead of infrared laser.
Another application of UV laser is micro-drilling, including through hole, micro-hole and so on. By focusing the laser light, the UV laser can run through the base board to achieve drilling. Based on the materials that UV laser work on, the smallest hole drilled can be less than 10μm.
Ceramics has enjoyed several thousand years of history. From daily use products to electronics, you can always see the trace of ceramics. Last century, electronics ceramics gradually became mature and had wider applications, such as heat-dissipating base board, piezoelectric material, semiconductor, chemical application and so on. As electronics ceramics can better absorb UV laser light and its size becomes smaller and smaller, UV laser will beat up CO2 laser and green laser on perform precise micro-machining on electronics ceramics.
With the rapid update of consumer electronics, the demand of precise cutting, engraving and marking of ceramics and glass will grow dramatically, leading to huge development of the domestic UV laser. According to the data, the sales volume of domestic UV laser was over 15000 units last year and there are many famous UV laser manufacturers in China. To name a few: Gain Laser, Inngu, Inno, Bellin, RFH, Huaray and so on.
UV laser cooling unitThe current industrial use UV laser ranges from 3W to 30W. Demanding precision processing requires high standard of the temperature control of the UV laser. To ensure the reliability and the lifespan of the UV laser, adding a highly stable and high quality cooling device is a MUST.
S&A Teyu is a laser cooling solution provider of 19 years of history with annual sales volume of 80000 units. For cooling UV laser, S&A Teyu developed RMUP series rack mount recirculating water chiller whose temperature stability reaches ±0.1℃. It can be integrated into the UV laser machine layout. Find out more about S&A Teyu RMUP series water chiller at https://www.teyuchiller.com/ultrafast-laser-uv-laser-chiller_c3
