Improve Your Laser Marking Process
Lasers are amazing. They can cut or weld, drill or solder. A very general application of laser materials processing is called laser marking. This can refer to a host of processes, like: etching, engraving, ablating, etc. Here’s a question I never considered: How can you be sure that your laser will mark the wood (or…
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Peak power vs. Average Power What is it, and how do I measure it?
A pulsed laser could have an average power of, say, 1 Watt, yet a peak power of 1 Megawatt – so when specifying it’s rather important to understand the difference! Contact us
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M-Squared: Lasers’ KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
With all of today’s technology, we are drowning in data. I know this is true in fields like marketing and running a business, and I’m sure it rings true with measuring your laser as well. There are all sorts of things you can measure, but it’s never worth measuring something unless you plan on…
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A Glimpse into the Life of Ophir CTO Ephraim Greenfield
What’s the one quality you need to be a great scientist? Intelligence? Diligence? If you ask Ephraim Greenfield, co-founder of Ophir, he’ll probably tell you it’s a mixture of luck and being willing to just go ahead and try something. Contact us
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There’s No Wrong Way to Use a BeamTrack Sensor
Unlike a traditional thermal sensor which is basically just used for power, the BeamTrack sensor can measure several different aspects of your laser. We also call them power/position/size sensors, since those are the three fundamental functions of a BeamTrack sensor. But it doesn’t have to stop there. Yes, if you need to measure your beam…
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Industrial Laser Beam Measurement with ModeCheck
Spiricon’s ModeCheck enables quality cutting, marking, drilling, and ablating. Instantaneously “see” your beam and reduce set-up time between jobs. ModeCheck provides real-time “mode burns” – eliminate hazardous acrylic vapors. Optimize your laser’s efficiency: reduce cost per part, predict laser preventative maintenance, increase manufacturing efficiency. Contact us
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How to Find the Perfect Laser Beam Profiler
I wish I could tell you that there is one super-profiler, and it will profile any laser with 100% accuracy! Of course that’s a pipe dream. There are tons of different laser types, so it stands to reason that we’ll need several different profilers to cover the range of lasers. There are cameras and scanning slit…
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Measuring Power of Scanned Laser Beams
In this video, you will learn how the BC20 sensor enables correct power measurement of scanned beams, as are used in barcode readers, laser shows and similarly challenging applications. Contact us
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Measuring Energy of High Rep Rate Pulsed Lasers
There’s a common misconception when it comes to choosing an energy sensor to measure high frequency pulsed lasers. The confusion begins when we look at the energy sensor specs and compares them to our laser. Contact us
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BeamGage Automation
BeamGage Professional and BeamGage Enterprise allow programmers to access all the functionality of the graphical user interface through LabView, Visual Basic, C++ and C#. This video is a short introduction to automation with a LabView demonstration. Contact us
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Your Map to Laser Beam Profiling Accessories:Which Cameras Do They Work With?
Few lasers can be profiled directly with a camera. Attenuation is almost always a must. Sometimes you might need additional optics as well. I discussed how to determine what accessories you need and how to use them in a couple of other posts: ND filters Expanding optics Reducing optics But there’s another consideration I haven’t…
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What’s Harder to Measure:A Short Pulsed Laser or a CW Laser?
On the one hand, CW lasers will almost always have a higher average power. That means it’s harder for the power sensor head to cool down. This is not an issue with most short pulsed lasers. However, Contact us
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