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Nowadays, engraving and cutting have become easier, allowing you to slice through even the toughest materials and convert them into clean and accurate designs. Direct diode laser and fiber laser are the most commonly used engravers and cutters. But what’s the difference they actually make?
Did you know that direct diode laser vs fiber laser is a common debate? Why? Because people actually get confused about the difference between them. Do you want to use the right one for your needs? Learn and understand each of them, including their operating methods, characteristics, pros, and cons.
In this article, let’s talk about the types of laser cutters – direct diode laser vs fiber laser. How does a direct diode laser work vs how a fiber laser works in detail, so that in the end, you’ll be able to choose the right one for your task like a pro.
What is a Direct Diode Laser?
A diode laser, also known as a laser diode (LD) or injection laser diode (ILD), is a compact optoelectronic device that converts electrical energy directly into coherent light energy through a process called electroluminescence. This technology is very similar in principle to Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), but while LEDs emit light in multiple directions and wavelengths, diode lasers produce a focused, coherent, and monochromatic beam of light.
How Does a Direct Diode Laser Work?
Diode lasers – The compact, energy-efficient devices. They generate laser light using semiconductor materials.
The process is interesting! Here’s why;
When an electric current flows through the diode, electrons in the semiconductor jump from a higher to a lower energy level. This movement releases energy in the form of photons, or light particles. These photons then bounce between mirrors within the diode, intensifying the light and producing a focused, coherent laser beam.
What makes diode lasers extra cool? It doesn’t use gases or solid-state crystals as its medium, like traditional lasers. Instead, they rely on semiconductors as the active medium. Therefore, diode lasers are more energy-efficient, plus cost-effective.
What is a Fiber Laser?
Fiber laser, a powerful and perfect cutting/engraving laser. They are solid-state lasers that a fiber optic cable packed with rare-earth elements shoots out an ultra-focused, high-powered laser beam. Fast, strong, and high accuracy is what fiber lasers are about, especially when handling tough materials.
Need to carve deep, bold designs into steel or aluminum? No problem—this laser doesn’t flinch. With power to spare and zero fuss, a fiber laser engraver makes metal engraving look effortless.
How Does a Fiber Laser Source Work?
When a strong light source pumps energy into the fiber, special rare-earth elements inside the fiber get super excited. These atoms absorb the energy and jump to a higher energy state.
Now here’s where the real laser happens. If a photon (a tiny packet of light) with just the right amount of energy comes along, it can bump into one of those excited atoms—causing the atom to release a twin photon with the same energy, direction, and vibe. This is stimulated emission, and it’s how lasers build their signature powerful light.
The fiber itself is placed inside a kind of light-bouncing hallway called an optical cavity, made of two mirrors: one that reflects almost everything and one that lets some light pass through. As photons bounce back and forth inside, the light gets stronger and more organized, until a super-focused laser beam escapes through the partially reflective mirror.
That beam can now be used for cutting, welding, engraving, or just making seriously cool marks on metal and other materials.
Direct Diode Laser vs Fiber Laser
- Power
Power is something you need to look for when purchasing laser cutters. Because it is with the power, you’ll be able to find out the ability of the machine to cut/engrave objects. When there’s high power, the speed gets faster and the depth of the cut gets deeper.
Direct Diode Laser – this has low power (2 to 20 watts on average). It might sound like a lot, but it is not enough to cut metal. This is because metal doesn’t absorb the diode laser’s wavelength very well. A diode having less than 10 watts can only engrave, but cannot cut through it.
Fiber Laser – this has high power, high cutting capacity, supporting a wide range of power options from 20W to 15KW. Comparatively, it has about 10 times the cutting capacity of the diode laser.
- Wavelength
Wavelength – determines the type of material the laser is suitable for cutting/engraving, and for what type of applications it can be used for.
Diode laser – has no fiber source and the wavelength ranges 550 nm – 950 nm. It’s more suitable for engraving non-metals and metals.
Fiber Laser – has a fiber source and a wavelength of 1064 nm, and so it is the best for cutting/engraving metals.
- Material Usage
Direct diode laser vs fiber laser is popular when it is about the material type. A diode laser has a very narrow engraving range for metal; therefore, it makes the process of cutting harder. With a diode laser, you can cut wood, leather, plywood, opaque acrylic, coated metal, and marble.
Fiber lasers aren’t the most flexible, but they truly shine when working with metal. They’re specially designed for cutting and engraving a wide range of metals with ease. Aluminum, gold, copper, stainless steel, carbon steel, or even ceramics and marble, a fiber laser can handle it all with power and precision.
- Cutting speed
Engrave? Diode laser often takes the lead, handling finer details at a quicker pace. But fiber laser impresses with its cutting speed, where it can cut up to 15% faster than a diode laser. As mentioned above, the more power, the faster the job gets done. So, when it is about cutting performance, fiber lasers are hard to beat for their speed and efficiency.
- Maintenance
This is a similarity when it comes to direct diode laser vs fiber laser. As they are solid-state lasers, they need less maintenance.
With a fiber laser, if the fiber inside gets damaged, you’ll likely need to replace the entire laser module—ouch!
On the other hand, a diode laser doesn’t use fiber cables, so that’s one less thing to worry about. But it does have its own weakness—overheating. If the diode laser gets too hot and the module burns out, you’ll still need to replace the whole laser unit.
Conclusion
Direct diode laser vs fiber laser sources are different in many ways. For the user, however, little attention is paid to how they work. Users are more interested in the laser cutter’s engraving material, speed, and longevity.
Choose a diode laser cutter if you want to buy the laser for personal use. Still, if you want to use the laser for small businesses or other commercial purposes, I recommend you choose a fiber laser cutter.
Fiber lasers are popularly available in Cesar CNC, and you can choose from a wide range of products, comparing them for your needs.
