Application costs and structures of various types of industrial lasers

1. Fiber Laser

• Application Costs:
  • Equipment Purchase Cost: Domestic 3kW fiber lasers cost between $100,000 and $180,000 per unit, while imported ones range from $150,000 to $220,000. For 10kW fiber lasers, domestic prices are between $700,000 and $1,000,000.
  • Operating Cost: The electro-optical conversion efficiency is as high as over 30%, resulting in low running costs. The structure is simple, and maintenance costs are low.
• Structure Composition:
  • Gain Fiber: Doped rare-earth element fiber, which serves as the laser gain medium.
  • Pump Source: Typically a semiconductor laser, providing energy to excite the rare-earth ions in the gain fiber.
  • Optical Resonator: Can be a Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity, fiber Bragg grating cavity, or ring cavity, consisting of two mirrors.
  • Cooling System: No special cooling is required for medium and low power levels. Water cooling is used for high power levels.

2. CO₂ Laser

• Application Costs:
  • Equipment Purchase Cost: The price range is quite broad. Small power (10-30W) lasers cost between $15,000 and $25,000, while high-power (700W-3kW) lasers range from $200,000 to $240,000.
  • Operating Cost: The running cost is relatively high, with an electro-optical conversion efficiency of about 10%. Regular maintenance of the mirrors and cavity is required.
• Structure Composition:
  • Laser Tube: Composed of a discharge tube, water-cooled jacket, and gas storage tube. The length of the discharge tube is proportional to the output power.
  • Optical Resonator: Consists of a fully reflective mirror and a partially reflective mirror, typically using a plano-concave cavity.
  • Power Supply: A high-voltage, high-frequency power supply, used to excite CO₂ molecules to produce laser light.
  • Cooling System: Usually water-cooled or air-cooled, maintaining the working temperature of the laser tube.

3. Semiconductor Laser

• Application Costs:
  • Equipment Purchase Cost: The price varies significantly depending on the power and application, with no specific figures mentioned.
  • Operating Cost: The operating cost is relatively low, but the exact cost varies depending on the application and power.
• Structure Composition:
  • Laser Medium: Typically a semiconductor material doped with rare-earth elements.
  • Pump Source: Usually current injection, providing energy to excite the semiconductor material.
  • Optical Resonator: Composed of two mirrors, which can be an external or internal cavity structure.

4. Disk Laser

• Application Costs:
  • Equipment Purchase Cost: The price is relatively high, but no specific figures are mentioned.
  • Operating Cost: The light-to-light conversion efficiency is as high as 65%, resulting in low running costs.
• Structure Composition:
  • Pumping Module: Composed of diode arrays, emitting pumping light beams.
  • Crystal Cavity: Contains laser crystals and mirrors for multiple reflections of pumping light.
  • Resonator: Composed of several mirrors, used for laser amplification.
  • Light-Guiding System: Directs the laser to the output end.

5. Solid-State Laser (e.g., Nd:YAG Laser)

• Application Costs:
  • Equipment Purchase Cost: The price is relatively high, but no specific figures are mentioned.
  • Operating Cost: The running cost is moderate, with regular replacement of flash lamps or diode pumping sources required.
• Structure Composition:
  • Laser Medium: Typically a crystal doped with rare-earth metals, such as Nd:YAG.
  • Pump Source: Commonly uses flash lamps or diode lasers to provide energy to excite the laser medium.
  • Optical Resonator: Composed of two mirrors, used for laser amplification.
  • Output Coupler: Controls the laser output.

Improvement of Technical Performance

• Higher Power: With the rapid development of industrial manufacturing, aerospace, and national defense, the demand for higher power lasers is increasing. High-power lasers can provide stronger energy for cutting, welding, drilling, and other heavy industrial processes, improving production efficiency and quality. In the future, higher power will be an important development direction for the laser industry.
• Lower Power Consumption: Against the backdrop of global energy shortages and increasing environmental awareness, lower power consumption has become an important trend in the laser industry. Low-power lasers can reduce energy consumption, lower operating costs, and have less impact on the environment. To achieve this, laser companies are continuously optimizing product designs to improve the conversion efficiency of lasers and reduce energy loss.
• Ultrafast Lasers: Ultrafast lasers (such as picosecond and femtosecond lasers) have unique advantages in micro-processing, such as the fine processing of electronic products and glass cutting. China is constantly catching up with the international advanced level in the field of ultrafast lasers. Domestic companies have been able to produce ultrafast lasers at the picosecond and femtosecond levels and have applied them in relevant fields.

Expansion of Application Fields

• Deepening in Industrial Processing: The application of lasers in industrial processing is continuously deepening, from traditional metal cutting, welding, marking, and drilling to more complex processes such as laser cleaning and laser cladding. At the same time, with the improvement of laser performance, its application in high-end industrial processing such as thick steel plate cutting and high-precision welding is also becoming more and more extensive.
• Expansion into Emerging Fields: The application fields of lasers are constantly expanding into new energy, information technology, aerospace, medical equipment, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and other high-end fields. In the new energy field, lasers are widely used in battery welding and metal surface cleaning processes. In the field of information technology, as a core component of optical communication devices, lasers are of great significance for improving communication speed and capacity.

Changes in Market Patterns

• Accelerated Domestic Substitution: In recent years, with the continuous progress of domestic laser technology and the improvement of the industrial chain, the level of domestic laser substitution has significantly increased. Domestic laser companies have developed certain independent research and development and innovation capabilities and can produce high-performance, cost-effective laser products. In the fiber laser market, the penetration rate of domestic lasers in multiple power segments has grown rapidly. For example, the domestic penetration rate of 1kW-3kW and 3kW-6kW fiber lasers has reached over 98%, and the penetration rate of domestic lasers in the 10kW and above power segment fiber laser market has also increased rapidly to nearly 70%.
• Accelerated Internationalization: To break out of the “internal competition,” many laser companies have chosen to go global. The growth in laser equipment exports is, on the one hand, due to the laser companies’ insight into changes in overseas demand, and on the other hand, it is a proof of the high-quality growth of laser equipment and the success of “Made in China” in the international market. In the future, the international business of the laser industry will continue to advance.

Industry Collaboration and Innovation

• Collaborative Development of the Industrial Chain: The development of the laser industry will place greater emphasis on collaborative innovation along the entire industrial chain. From upstream core optoelectronic components to midstream laser manufacturing and downstream application equipment and solutions, cooperation between different segments will become closer, jointly promoting the development and application of laser technology.
• Integration with Emerging Technologies: The deep integration of laser technology with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things will drive the laser industry to a higher level of development. For example, artificial intelligence technology can be used to achieve intelligent control of the laser processing process, improving processing quality and efficiency.