A new 100μm aperture, 920nm laser diode chip was developed to improve fiber coupling efficiency and reliability. These chips have been assembled into single-emitter and multi-emitter packages with 105μm diameter fiber-coupled output. The single-emitter package is rated for 12W operation, while the multi-emitter package is rated at 140W. Power conversion efficiency is 50%. Over one year of accelerated active life testing has been completed along with a suite of passive, environmental qualification tests. These pumps have been integrated into 2kW, 4kW, and 6kW fiber laser engines that demonstrate excellent brightness, efficiency, and sheet metal cutting quality and speed.
We have developed a commercial 4-kW fiber laser consisting of seven, 600-W modules whose outputs are combined
with a fused-fiber combiner. The system architecture has several practical advantages, including pumping with reliable
single-emitter diodes, monolithic fused-fiber construction (no free-space beams), and end pumping using a 91:1 pump
combiner (eliminating the need for complex pump/signal combiners). Typical results at 4-kW output power are a beamparameter
product of 2.6 mm-mrad, 8-hr power stability of < 0.5% rms, central wavelength of 1080 nm, and linewidth of
1.2 nm FWHM. These lasers have been incorporated into Amada machines used for cutting metal sheet and plate and
have been used to cut aluminum, mild steel, stainless steel, brass, titanium, and copper with a thickness up to 19 mm. A
world-record cutting speed of 62 m/min has been demonstrated for 1-mm aluminum sheet metal.
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