Galvanometers Are a Type of Scanning Galvanometer Used in the Laser Industry

A laser scanner, also known as a laser galvanometer, is made up of an X-Y optical scanning head, electronic drive amplifiers, and optical reflector lenses. The signal provided by the computer controller drives the optical scanning head through the drive amplification circuit, thereby controlling the deflection of the laser beam in the X-Y plane. In a laser demonstration system, the waveform of the optical scan is a vector scan, and the scanning speed of the system determines the stability of the laser pattern.

The principle of scanning galvanometer

You may want to know about the galvanometer scanner how it works. The scanning pattern is a two-dimensional effect pattern, so the scanning galvanometer adopts X and Y two motors to control the position of one point at a time, and the position of the points at different times is controlled by the scanning frequency to achieve the transformation of the entire scanning pattern. The lower the scanning frequency (speed), the more obvious the pattern flicker, which can be understood in the same way as the principle of movies.

The professional term for the mirror is the high-speed scanning galvanometer. The mirror design concept completely follows the design method of ammeters. The lens replaces the pointer, and the signal of the probe is replaced by a DC signal controlled by the computer to complete the predetermined action. Similar to the scanning system of the turning mirror type, this typical control system uses a pair of folding mirrors, but the stepping motor driving this set of lenses is replaced by a servo motor. In this control system, the use of position sensors and the design concept of negative feedback circuit further ensures the accuracy of the system, and the scanning speed and repeat positioning accuracy of the entire system have reached a new level.

The composition of the marking head of the scanning galvanometer

The scanning galvanometer marking head is mainly composed of XY scanning galvanometer, field mirror, scanning galvanometer and computer-controlled marking software, etc.

Choose the corresponding optical components according to the different laser wavelengths. Relevant options also include laser beam expanders, lasers, etc. Its working principle is to inject the laser beam into two reflection mirrors (scanning galvanometers), and control the reflection angle of the reflection mirrors by the computer. These two reflection mirrors can scan along the X and Y axes respectively, thereby achieving deflection of the laser beam. The focus point of the laser with a certain power density moves on the marking material according to the requirements, leaving a permanent mark on the surface of the material. The focused spot can be circular or rectangular. In the scanning galvanometer system, vector graphics and text can be used. This method adopts the processing method of graphic software in the computer, and has the characteristics of high drawing efficiency, good graphic accuracy, no distortion, etc., which greatly improves the quality and speed of laser marking. At the same time, the mirror scanning marking can also adopt a dot matrix marking method. This method is very suitable for online marking. According to the production line with different speeds, one or two scanning galvanometers can be used. Compared with the array marking mentioned earlier, more dot matrix information can be marked, which has greater advantages for marking Chinese characters. Scanning galvanometer scanning marking has become a mainstream product due to its wide range of applications, vector marking and dot matrix marking can be performed, and the marking range is adjustable. Moreover, the high-quality scanning galvanometer produced by professional galvanometer suppliers has the advantages of fast response speed, high marking speed, high marking quality, good light path sealing performance, strong environmental adaptability, etc., and is considered to represent the development direction of future laser marking with broad application prospects.

Scanning galvanometer applications

Simply put, the scanning galvanometer system is a high-precision and high-speed servo control system composed of a driver board and a high-speed swinging motor. Laser scanning galvanometers are used in laser marking, laser engraving, stage lighting control, laser drilling, etc.