Diode Lasers....Under ther Hood 29

This session investigates two interesting problems that have bugged me throughout my diode laser journey.

The first is to investigate and test if it is possible to decrease the focused spot size and thus increase the performance of my 40 watt diode head by creating a compound lens.

The second is to try and finally understand why I get different colour vertcal bars when I try to engrave colours onto the surface of stainless steel.

Sadly I have decided that a diode laser will not meet my aspirations of teaming it with CO2 technology. However there may be a few more sessions in this series to see if I can complete my learning journey with different materials. It has been a great learning experience and after investing many hours and £££/$$$, I really wanted to find some serious positives in this technology. These were never intended as brand reviews to demonstrate cherry picked performance details It was always about digging deep to discover the "dirty washing" ...if there was any.

I think the ultimate proof that diode technology will never compete with CO2, can be seen by the direction X-Tool is now taking with their P2 machine. Other brands will soon follow out of 455nm technology.