The CO2 laser has reached the well-known upper limit. Since the breakthrough of fiber laser technology, high-power fiber laser cutting machines have quickly found their place in the manufacturing industry through continuous development and evolution. For more than 30 years, the power and performance of carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers seem to have reached a limit. Most of the power of CO2 laser pointer devices purchased by consumers is in the range of 4-5kW (occasionally, 6kW devices are also purchased). It took about 15 years to make the sale of 3kW CO2 lasers common, and then it took another 5 years to make 4kW products the mainstream choice for end users. In fact, higher power CO2 lasers (6kW and above) have been around for many years, dating back to the 1990s. Although sales of high-power CO2 lasers have increased slightly in the 21st century, they have never been able to match and approach sales of products with 4-5kW power.
First of all, with the emergence of technologies such as choppers, electronically controlled shutters, polarizing elements, beam collimation and better control elements, CO2 laser technology has achieved tremendous improvements in the development and evolution process. Due to the development of these green laser pointer technologies, the performance of CO2 lasers has been greatly improved, thus giving products better ease of use. Previously, the industry demand was not based on the emphasis on today’s multi-style and small-batch trends. Until 2000, this strategy changed. However, the industry is still undergoing various changes, and the productivity of manufacturing is also improving. As the CO2 laser has been improved, it has also driven product demand and sales. However, CO2 lasers are still relatively expensive and require a lot of power and maintenance requirements.
In the mid-1990s, Laser Engraver technology has gradually entered a period of strong growth. Until 2000, laser technology has surpassed stamping technology and has become the mainstream processing “tool” preferred by the manufacturing industry. Therefore, the manufacturing strategy has changed rapidly, and streamlining has become a keyword, and “multi-variety, small-batch” has become a new criterion for efficient manufacturing. This criterion requires “just-in-time production”, and lasers are the ideal tool because this machining technology can reduce or eliminate set-up time during workpiece conversion.