What makes a laserhead expensive????

[Paul]

I am wondering what the reason is that the higher power lasers are expensive. Most likely the diode is the most expensive part. But why is it so expensive? Is it hand made? Is the failure rate very high on these during the production process? Is the demand too low keeping the price high? Or maybe a combination???

Who knows the answer???

[Laserman532]

What makes a butterflies wing pretty? Continue the journey grasshopper and soon all of your questions will be answered by the universe. The journey for the quest of knowledge begins with a single step. Your question is too broad in scope, narrow your query.

[Paul]

OK, why is a 473nm laser much more expensive then a 635nm head? (Both with the same output power)

[thesk8nmidget]

diodes are expensive crystals are too, then you need a good design then a circuit that can run your tec plates and keep everything cool and also power the laser, and to top it off it needs to be reliable. then you have to make that messy beam usable for a projector.

all of that and then the very small demand equals a hefty price, but that hefty price is spare change compared to 10 years ago.


prices are going down just not noticeably just bookmark some lasers and mark the price then check a year later i bet it will be a noticeable difference

[thesk8nmidget]

OK, why is a 473nm laser much more expensive then a 635nm head? (Both with the same output power)

a blue requires a large amount of crystals and a prefect alignment for about (if i remember) at best 5% efficiency so you need a very powerful pump diode to get a small amount of power where as 635 you can get with no crystals and just diodes

[frothychimp]

When it comes to DPSS laser construction there are no economies of scale. Let's look at the common 532nm. For our company the prices tend to be linear across the line with a small jump at the change to the larger form factor. (mW across the bottom for 532nm)



Others, particularly diode lasers, often increase in price exponentially due to the complexity and cost of generating high power diodes (primarily in the visible range). 808nm and 980nm are the exception because they are very popular (due to pump sources) and because they are easily constructed compared to other laser diode wavelengths.

Lower efficiency DPSS tends to increase in price very quickly as power climbs because the response to SHG is not linear so larger and larger pumping and cavities are needed to achieve modest increases in SHG response.

Gas lasers are all over the board because the composition of the tubes and quality of the systems vary widely. Laser costs seem to be directly related, generally, to current required to operate the tube.

[ledfreak3d]

OK, why is a 473nm laser much more expensive then a 635nm head? (Both with the same output power)

if u know anything about laser u already should know the answer

[soforene]

When it comes to DPSS laser construction there are no economies of scale. Let's look at the common 532nm.

The prices appear to be missing from your left hand axis.

[frothychimp]

Well you know what they say....if you have to ask

[soforene]

Excellent.
I have a $20 bill left over from my last trip to Ameriky.

I'll have a 5 watt please and can you post it first class so that I can show it off to the lads at UKLEM 4.5

Ta.