Properties and Prospects of High Brightness Solid State Lasers:The Laser Becomes an Energy Saving Device

摘要

The new generation of solid state laserslike disc and fiber lasers showed an ex-traordinary quick development with re-spect to power, beam quality and price. Itis shown that recent technology enableswelding with a considerable lower energyconsumption than for conventional gasmetal arc welding. Besides the efficiency,the most important feature is the beamquality, which can be used for remote ap-plications and welding at high speed. Onthe other hand, some challenges have tobe solved, like thermal distortion of thebeam shaping optics, humping and lowhomogeneity of the welds.