The Quasi Continuous Wave (QCW) laser from IPG Photonics, Oxford, Mass., has been awarded the 2010 Prism Award for Photonics Innovation in the Industrial Lasers category.
The QCW lasers perform laser welding, cutting, and drilling applications better and faster than older flash lamp-pumped and diode pumped YAG and CO2 technology. The QCW laser has a dramatically small footprint: the entire laser is a 19" rack mount, air-cooled package with reportedly over 30% wall plug efficiency vs. flash lamp's 3% efficiency. Existing systems require only a simple upgrade to the beam delivery system and a new QCW laser can be installed and operational in only a matter of days.
IPG's QCW Retrofit program allows most widely used flash lamp, diode pumped or CO2 lasers to be replaced with our maintenance free QCW fiber lasers.
