CO2 laser glass tube vs CO2 laser metal tube, which is better?

CO2 laser belongs to gas laser and its wavelength is about 10.6um which belongs to infrared spectrum. The common CO2 laser tube includes CO2 laser glass tube and CO2 laser metal tube.

CO2 laser belongs to gas laser and its wavelength is about 10.6um which belongs to infrared spectrum. The common CO2 laser tube includes CO2 laser glass tube and CO2 laser metal tube. You may know that CO2 laser is a very common laser source in laser cutting machine, laser engraving machine and laser marking. But when it comes to choosing the laser source for your laser machine, do you really know which one is better?

Well, let’s take a look at them one by one.

CO2 laser glass tube

It also known as CO2 laser DC tube. As its name suggests, CO2 laser glass tube is made from hard glass and it is normally a 3-layer design. The inner layer is discharge tube, the middle layer is water cooling layer and the outer layer is gas storage layer. The length of the discharge tube is related to the power of the laser tube. Generally speaking, the higher the laser power, the longer the discharge tube will be needed. There are small holes on both sides of the discharge tube and they are connected to the gas storage tube. When it is working, CO2 can circulate in the discharge tube and the gas storage tube. Therefore, the gas can be exchanged in time.

Features of CO2 laser DC tube:

1.Since it uses glass as its shell, it is easy to crack or explode when it receives heat and vibrates. Therefore, there is certain risk in the operation;

2.It is a traditional gas-moving style laser with high energy consumption and big size and requiring high pressure power supply. Under certain circumstances, high pressure power supply will lead to improper contact or poor ignition;

3.CO2 laser DC tube has short lifespan. The life span in theory is around 1000 hours and day by day the laser energy will decrease. Therefore, it is hard to guarantee the consistency of the product processing performance. Besides, it is quite complicated and time consuming to change out the laser tube, so it is easy to cause delay in the production;

4.The peak power and the pulse modulation frequency of the CO2 laser glass tube are pretty low. And those are the key features in material processing. Therefore, it is hard to improve the efficiency, accuracy and the performance;

5.The laser power is not stable, causing big difference between actual laser output value and theoretical value. Therefore, it requires to work under big electrical current every day and precision processing can not be done.

CO2 laser metal tube

It is also known as CO2 laser RF tube. It is made from metal and its tube and electrode are also made from compressed aluminum. The clear aperture (i.e. where plasma and laser light is generated) and the working gas are stored in the same tube. This kind of design is reliable and doesn’t require high manufacturing cost.

Features of CO2 laser RF tube:

1.The CO2 laser RF tube is the revolution in laser design and production. It is small in size but powerful in function. It uses direct current instead of high pressure power supply;

2.The laser tube has a metal and sealed design without maintenance. The CO2 laser can work over 20,000 hours continuously. It is a durable and reliable industrial laser source. It can be installed on the workstation or small processing machine and has more powerful processing ability than CO2 laser glass tube. And it is pretty easy to change out the gas. After changing out the gas, it can be used for another 20,000 hours. Therefore, the total lifespan of the CO2 laser RF tube could reach more than 60,000 hours;

3.The peak power and the pulse modulation frequency of the CO2 laser metal tube is pretty high, which guarantees the efficiency and accuracy of material processing. The light spot of it can be pretty small;

4.The laser power is pretty stable and remains the same under long-term working.

From the above illustration, their differences are quite clear:

1.Size
CO2 laser metal tube is more compact than CO2 laser glass tube;

2.Life span

CO2 laser metal tube has longer life than CO2 laser glass tube. And the former only requires gas changing out while the latter requires the whole tube changing out.

3.Cooling method
CO2 laser RF tube can use air cooling or water cooling while CO2 laser DC tube often uses water cooling.

4.Light spot
The light spot for CO2 laser metal tube is 0.07mm while the one for CO2 laser glass tube is 0.25mm.

5.Price
Under the same power, CO2 laser metal tube is more expensive than CO2 laser glass tube.

But either CO2 laser DC tube or CO2 laser RF tube, it requires efficient cooling to work normally. The most ideal way is to add a CO2 laser cooling system. S&A Teyu CW series CO2 laser cooling systems are very popular among the laser machine users due to superior cooling and offering different stability and refrigeration capacity to choose. Among those, small water chillers CW-5000 and CW-5200 are the most popular ones, for they are compact in size but not having powerful cooling performance at the same time. Go check out the complete CO2 laser cooling system models at https://www.teyuchiller.com/co2-laser-chillers_c1

CO2 laser cooling system

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CO2 laser glass tube vs CO2 laser metal tube, which is better?

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