Pulsed Diode Laser Light Source CAVILUX SMART

CAVILUX Smart is a versatile and powerful pulsed diode laser system. It is very suitable as a light source for machine vision solutions and is an excellent tool for scientific and industrial R&D work. Possible monitoring applications include welding, paper webs, flows, material testing and the study of impacts and explosions. CAVILUX Smart can generate pulsed light power of hundreds of watts.

The visible 640 nm red light makes alignment easier and provides good sensitivity with semiconductor cameras. In spite of the wavelength, the light output is always monochromatic and incoherent, which is ideal for illumination purposes as there are no chromatic aberrations or speckle. (Source: Cavitar)

At the PtU, the laser is used in combination with the High-speed Image Intensifier Camera hsfc pro with the aim to observe the process of impact welding. In addition to high speed imaging, the laser may also be used in certain applications as a strobe light.

Functional principle

Unlike typical lasers, this laser does not emit coherent light. Thus so-called speckling is avoided and images of high quality can be achieved. In combination with a bandpass filter in front of the camera, intense process glare (e.g. the arc of light of fusion welding processes) can be outshined in a very narrow wavelength range and thus are blanked out from the image.

Technical data

  • manufacturer: Cavitar
  • wavelength: 640 ± 5 nm
  • laser class: 4
  • power: ca. 400 Watt
  • duty cycle: 0.1 %
  • pulse duration: 42 ns …10 µs
  • programmable controller with USB interface
  • triggerable in- and outputs
  • spot size: 5…100 mm