Fiber Lasers Unlimited Opportunities?An overview of strengths and weaknesses of fiber laser technology for industrial applications

摘要

Technology is important as its interpreta-tion is the base to consider costs. For theherewith discussed fiber lasers we shouldmainly look at the fiber laser module it-self, being the power generator, the pumpsource for this generator and some acces-sories as well. Finally the application capa-bilities will round this picture. Fiber lasersare in competition to other technologiesnot being the answer to all questions. AsRofin in its Macro division does manufac-ture almost all market relevant laser tech-nologies, named CO2 lasers, disc-lasers,rod-lasers, diode lasers as well as the dis-cussed fiber lasers, Rofin serves as an un-biased consultant for the customers. Com-paring those different lasers is not alwayspossible. With differences in power level,beam quality and even more importantwavelength, the application capabilityoften tells the story and thus we'd like torather concentrate on the fiber lasers thanstarting a comparison of products.