With the rapid development of the handheld laser welding market, in recent years the use of water-cooled handheld laser welding machine for a large number of sales to the market, compared with the size of the traditional welding machine, the existing water-cooled handheld laser welding machine equipment size and weight still let the customer feel too cumbersome and heavy, daily frequent maintenance and other issues let the user is still suffering. Users expect the handheld laser welding machine towards miniaturisation, lightweight, maintenance-free development trend, water-cooled handheld laser welding machine key breakthrough lies in the use of water-cooled heat dissipation.

At present, the industry’s handheld laser welding machine technology development for the air-cooled cooling method of the call is particularly obvious, hope that through the air-cooled cooling technology to further make the laser handheld welding machine is more lightweight, miniaturisation, maintenance-free, to enhance the user’s experience, so that its use is more closely related to the use of the traditional welding machine experience. Therefore, in the air-cooled heat dissipation technology route also gave birth to two different air-cooled heat dissipation programme, so which programme can better meet the product cooling needs, which programme is more stable and reliable?
01 The heart of the laser: semiconductor laser chip
The most important part of the handheld laser welding machine is the fibre laser, regardless of which cooling method needs to ensure that the fibre laser good heat dissipation, and the core of the fibre laser heat dissipation is the laser in the semiconductor laser chip, which can be described as the heart of the laser, if the laser chip can not get effective heat dissipation, which means that the chip’s failure to increase the risk of long-term use of power attenuation increases, which affects the service life of the handheld laser welding machine, which can be described as the heart of the laser. If the laser chip can not get effective heat dissipation, it means that the risk of failure of the chip increases and the power attenuation increases in long-term use, thus affecting the service life of the handheld laser welder, which is an extremely critical component. In the current state of technological development, the working life of the laser chip will increase with the temperature of the rapid decay, the chip’s own normal operating temperature needs to be maintained within 80 ℃, the general safety of the working temperature should be about 60 ℃.

02 Forced air cooling VS direct air-conditioning
First of all, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the forced air cooling method of heat dissipation in the handheld laser welder;

Advantage: Forced air cooling technology is in the form of heat conduction, the heat generated will be conducted to the aluminium radiator, through the fan blowing the rapid flow of ambient air, so as to achieve the natural heat transfer to the radiator. Compared to water cooling technology, air cooling does not require additional water cooling tanks, which can reduce the number and size of equipment.
Disadvantage: Due to the natural convection heat transfer method, the heat dissipation efficiency is affected by the ambient temperature, and the heat dissipation efficiency cannot be guaranteed in high temperature environments, which leads to the elevation of the semiconductor laser chip, reduces the service life of the laser chip, and fails to meet the continuous and reliable operation in high temperature environments.

Why do you say that the forced air-cooling heat dissipation method cannot protect the laser chip at high temperature will reduce the service life, or even the risk of failure?

Semiconductor laser chip as a core component is encapsulated in a sealed metal shell, forming a complete semiconductor laser pump, in the work will release a lot of heat, if a 1500W laser full power operation, according to the pump electro-optical efficiency of 55% calculation, the semiconductor pump heat dissipation power of about 2100W, when the ambient temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, the semiconductor pump shell When the ambient temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, the semiconductor pump housing temperature of 44 degrees Celsius or so, at this time the laser chip temperature can reach 75 degrees Celsius or more, if the ambient temperature reaches 35 degrees Celsius or more, the laser chip operating temperature will be higher than 80 degrees Celsius or more, facing a very high risk of failure, so for the traditional forced-air-cooled cooling, the entire machine about 2500W of heat needs to be through the aluminium radiator for natural convection heat exchange, the difficulty can be said to be huge, coupled with the laser chip cooling power of about 2100W. The difficulty can be said to be huge, coupled with the risk of failure of the laser chip in high temperature operation, can not meet the equipment for long-term reliable continuous operation.

Let’s learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of active air cooling technology in handheld laser welding machine
Advantage: The principle is to combine the air conditioning compressor with the fibre laser, through the air conditioning compressor will be gaseous refrigerant compressed into a high temperature and high pressure gaseous state, and sent to the condenser for cooling, cooled into a medium temperature and high pressure liquid refrigerant, medium temperature liquid refrigerant throttled by the expansion valve to reduce the pressure, into a low-temperature, low-pressure gas-liquid mixture, through the internal laser to absorb the heat and vaporisation, into a gaseous state, and then back to the The compressor continues to compress and continue the cycle of refrigeration, and the four-way valve makes the flow direction of Freon in the condenser and evaporator opposite to that of refrigeration during heating, so as to achieve the effect of heating.

Disadvantage: Due to the adoption of the technical principle similar to that of inverter air-conditioner, its manufacturing cost is higher than that of the forced air-cooled cooling method of common radiator, and secondly, the weight of the equipment is slightly higher.

03 Three core advantages, redefining the new benchmark of air-cooling technology
Compared with the more economical forced air cooling technology, the active air conditioning direct cooling technology has the following three core advantages:

1. ultra-low power attenuation, stable performance, long-lasting double
Industry insiders know that the laser chip at 80 ℃ or more will suffer serious irreversible damage. Thanks to the “active air-conditioning direct cooling technology” excellent intelligent temperature control system, can ensure that the equipment in the full power of a long period of continuous working conditions, the key laser chip within the semiconductor pump continues to work below 70 ℃, after a year of continuous operation, power attenuation of ≤ 5%! The traditional forced air cooling technology can not achieve real-time temperature control, laser chip temperature can not be controlled in a reasonable range, resulting in forced air cooling technology equipment power attenuation is much higher than the active air-conditioning refrigeration technology, light damage to the laser chip resulting in shorter service life of the equipment, in serious cases, directly burned out the laser equipment can not be used. The use of active air-conditioning refrigeration technology products both in terms of service life, or power attenuation can perform better, greatly improving the user’s equipment life cycle, reduce costs.
2. do not fear the cold and heat, efficient heat dissipation, challenge the limit
As forced air cooling is to rely on the rapid flow of ambient air to take away the internal heat of the equipment, resulting in forced air cooling technology is greatly affected by the ambient temperature, the weather changes in the hot or cold season, the southern or northern regional climate, etc. will have a greater impact on the efficiency and stability of forced air-cooled equipment, or even directly stop working, affecting the user’s processing efficiency and normal use of equipment. Active air-conditioning refrigeration technology uses an independent compressor direct cooling programme, making the cooling effect even in extreme weather conditions are still strong. Optical laser innovative proposed ACC intelligent temperature control technology to ensure that the laser internal temperature is always stable, so as to protect the stable output of the fibre laser equipment.
3. Higher heat dissipation ability, breaking through the upper limit of laser heat dissipation power.
As the power of the fibre laser rises, the heat generated will also rise linearly. Currently on the market using forced air cooling technology of the fibre laser power of up to 1500W, higher power laser if the forced air cooling technology, will not be able to take away the heat generated by the equipment, resulting in high internal temperature of the fibre laser, can not work properly.
During the 2023 Munich Optoelectronics Exhibition in Germany, Guanghui Laser once again refreshed the record of air-cooling technology power band, and released a 10,000-watt air-cooled product for the world: active air-conditioning direct cooling of 12kw fibre laser, the power consumption of the whole machine cooling is more than 17KW, and the temperature control is still stable, reliable and accurate, which really breaks through the bottleneck of the heat dissipation technology of the high power laser, and makes the stability of the operating power of the fibre laser greatly improved, and the equipment runs for a long time without any maintenance. Greatly enhance the long-term operation of the equipment maintenance-free, no water-cooled cooling system maintenance trouble, the user is more worry-free, free of maintenance troubles.

Since the release of “active air-conditioning direct cooling technology” in July 2021, the number of installed sales has exceeded 3,000 units, and the equipment failure caused by the heat dissipation system is almost zero, and the reliability of long-term heat dissipation has been fully verified by the market, which is truly able to achieve high-efficiency heat dissipation, intelligent temperature control, and closed-loop control.

So far, the handheld laser welding machine cooling technology, which is strong, through the comparison of data and technical differences in comparison, can be clearly compared to the “air-conditioning direct cooling cooling method” of the huge advantages, that is, to meet the customer on the miniaturisation of the equipment, lightweight, the pursuit of maintenance-free, and at the same time, greatly protect the long-term reliability of the equipment is the most correct choice of the user! It is the most correct choice for users!

From focusing on the continuous exploration and innovation of 976nm technology to the active air-conditioning direct cooling technology solutions, Optical Laser has always been adhering to technological innovation, with the mission of “making lasers a universal tool for the general public”, to provide high-performance, high-efficiency, high-quality lasers and solutions. In the future, Brightwell Laser will continue to plough into the active air-conditioning direct cooling technology, lead the latest development trend of air-cooling technology, and launch laser products covering higher and fuller power, harder quality, and more stable performance from the perspective of users.