Why does fiber laser knock open the door of laser marking

In the past 10 years, the laser marking industry has developed rapidly, and many suppliers around the world currently provide laser marking systems. Almost every industry requires tracking a large number of manufactured products and components. Compared with traditional marking technology, laser marking is a good processing method due to its inherent flexibility, fast speed, high reliability and easy use. Although a variety of laser types and different laser wavelengths have been used in the past and now, the increase in fiber lasers is particularly amazing-almost all marking system manufacturers have at least one fiber laser product in their series. The technical advantages of fiber lasers are well known and well known. Here, this article will review some other backgrounds that people know little about, and analyze the advantages of fiber lasers for laser marking in special circumstances. Market review Around 1998, low-power continuous-wave fiber lasers were used to mark integrated circuits with limited uses. Since then, the first batch of pulsed nanosecond devices have been introduced, which can be applied to a wider range of marking applications. It is the fiber that is still being developed. The real beginning of the laser revolution. In 2011, in the entire market, global fiber laser revenue increased by 48%; in the marking and engraving field, diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers grew by only 4% last year, and fiber laser sales increased by 34%. The growth rate of the use of fiber lasers for marking has almost replaced low-power (<30 watts) flashlamp pumped solid-state lasers. In the field of marking and engraving, the last stronghold of other infrared lasers is already at higher power (>30 watts) for deeper and faster engraving. However, the development of 50-watt pulsed nanosecond fiber lasers means that this field is also currently being occupied by fiber lasers. In this field, fiber lasers of all powers are showing growth. In 2011, a large supplier sold more than 10,000 fiber lasers.　　Historical background　　Laser ushered in the 50th anniversary of the invention of lasers, and the American inventor of fiber lasers, Elias Snitzer, has passed away. Now it may be appropriate to discuss why fiber lasers are so different from other types of lasers. Solid-state lasers and fiber lasers use one of many rare earth elements as the active medium for generating laser beams. The name 'rare earth' is derived from the confirmation that they are extremely rare when they are discovered. Since many of the current rare earth reserves are located in Inner Mongolia, China, there are some supply concerns, but many parts of the world do produce ores of these elements. These rare earth elements supplement the first two rows of the periodic table of basic elements. For many people outside the laser industry, these 15 elements are difficult to pronounce and may not be spelled out completely. They belong to the lanthanide series because their chemical properties are similar to the element lanthanum. In fiber lasers, the widely used rare earth active element is ytterbium, named after the small village of Itby in Sweden. A large number of this rare earth and many other rare earth minerals were discovered for the first time near this small village.