Anyone know of a readily available galvo setup and controller that could be used for rastering/drawing with a laser? Basic CNC with a laser head is extremely inefficient for SLS, whereas a laser marking head is light years faster. A lot of the commercial units are unbelievably expensive and require their own proprietary (but yet quite awesome) controllers. Dangit. Wrong forum. Can a mod move this to the SLS section? Thanks. https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,295485#msg-295485 Sat, 06 Jun 2026 03:20:02 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350913#msg-350913 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350913#msg-350913
The not expanded laserbeam is something around 4mm in diameter, but the energy density in the center is so big, that it starts overheating the coating in a spot of maybe 1mm diameter with >4W CW (but survived 20W with 30% PWM-ratio).

My actual mirrors are from old copiers and survive until 40W CW and >120W pulsed with the beam expanded to 8mm diameter.

I have a professional galvo-head too with dielectric mirrors, where the coating looks red-translucent - but they are designed for pulsing only with 1064nm and around 45deg reflection, not for CW exposure.

There are mirrors made from metal with higher reflectivity and thermal conductivity, o they will survive much higher energy densities, but they are really expensive and much more scratch-sensitive than coated glass-mirrors ...]]> VDX Powder Printing and Selective Laser Sintering Tue, 06 May 2014 02:31:22 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350863#msg-350863 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350863#msg-350863
i may be wrong, but it sounds like the mirror coatings were incorrect for reflecting the beam wavelength you are using. or is it just the small mass of the mirrors not being able to dissipate the absorbed heat?]]> Nived Powder Printing and Selective Laser Sintering Mon, 05 May 2014 21:02:18 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350578#msg-350578 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350578#msg-350578 VDX Powder Printing and Selective Laser Sintering Mon, 05 May 2014 09:09:28 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350433#msg-350433 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,350433#msg-350433
[www.ebay.com]

is this too expensive?]]> Nived Powder Printing and Selective Laser Sintering Mon, 05 May 2014 02:45:51 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,295485#msg-295485 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?153,295485,295485#msg-295485
A lot of the commercial units are unbelievably expensive and require their own proprietary (but yet quite awesome) controllers.


Dangit. Wrong forum. Can a mod move this to the SLS section? Thanks.]]> MrBaz Powder Printing and Selective Laser Sintering Wed, 15 Jan 2014 20:11:15 -0500