New laser catalysis technology
In the sealed off laser tube, the catalytic technology can effectively prolong the service life of the laser. In the practical application case of high pressure excited CO2 laser tube, the service life of catalyst free laser tube is less than 3000 hours, and the service life of coated catalyst laser tube is extended to more than 8000 hours.
The specific methods and principles of CO2 laser tube catalysis are analyzed
In this paper, a catalyst was coated on the outer edge of the plasma (which can also be considered as the inner wall of the discharge tube) in a high-voltage excited CO2 laser tube.
Under the high voltage electric excitation, the CO2 molecules in the discharge tube decompose continuously, and the CO2 dissociates into CO + O under the electron collision. Fortunately, this reaction process is reversible, and CO and O will compound to form CO2 after meeting. But this kind of encounter and recombination is not complete, because the probability of their meeting and recombination is always less than the decomposition process of CO2. What's more serious is that the uncomposite oxygen atoms produce compound to form O2, and the reaction activation ability of O2 and CO is very high, so it is difficult to compound to form CO2. O2 molecule is very active and can produce oxides with other gas molecules in the device. All kinds of oxides are fatal to CO2 laser tube and can greatly reduce the output power of laser. Moreover, when the oxide accumulates to a certain extent, it will produce interlocking reaction and make the internal power rate of the laser disappear for several hours. A little more popular, laser tube used to a certain time, the power is not linear decline, is suddenly not light.
According to the above analysis, the key solution is to accelerate the CO2 recombination and reduce the reaction activation energy. Then you have to use a catalyst. The specific method is to coat the catalyst on the edge of plasma. The materials of catalysts can be divided into metal or rare earth. Metals include Pt, Au, Cu and so on, which can play a significant catalytic role. However, metals have a disadvantage: they are all excellent conductors. If the metal is directly plated in the discharge tube, the current will be conducted directly through the film layer, not through the working gas, so there is no way to talk about the discharge excitation. The solution to this problem is to coat metal oxide on the inner wall of discharge tube. In this way, the discharge problem is well solved and the catalytic purpose is achieved. We used to be the original laser tube on the machine. We used to know that the laser tube was 1600mm long. This kind of laser tube has 1200mm and 1400mm long. We replaced it with 1400mm long, power 130W, and the cutting effect is good,
For more information about laser tube and laser tube manufacturer of Shanghai Shanpu Laser Technology Co., Ltd., please contact editor.