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David Billington[_2_] David Billington[_2_] is offline
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Default Which color laser?

On 19/10/16 21:22, wrote:
I must be looking in the wrong places because I have not yet been able
to find out which metals absorb which frequencies of light best. I am
looking at heating various metals with a laser so I need to know which
laser will work best for which metal. Anybody here have any pointers?
Thanks,
Eric

I don't know if it'll be much help but my local laser profiling company
mentioned that they had been warned off cutting copper based alloys
because the main mirrors in the laser cutter were highly polished copper
and cutting copper based alloys could send enough energy back to
overheat the mirrors and damage them. They do cut copper based alloys
but limit the thickness cut to something that doesn't threaten the
mirrors. I was in the past involved with a laser activated optical
emission spectrometer so will have a look to see if I have any details
that might be useful but don't hold too much hope as I recall the
project worked but was abandoned due to issues such a short laser
longevity etc. .