Principle and Application of Laser Galvo Technology

Laser galvo, also known as laser scanner, is composed of X-Y optical scanning head, electronic amplifying driver and optical reflector. The signal provided by the computer controller drives the optical scanning head through the driving amplification circuit, thus controlling the deflection of the laser beam in the X-Y plane.

In laser demonstration systems, the waveform of optical scanning is a vector scan, and the scanning speed of the system determines the stability of the laser graphics. In recent years, high-speed scanners with scanning speeds of up to 45,000 points/second have been developed, making it possible to demonstrate complex laser animations.

Working principle of laser galvo

The scanning pattern is a 2D effect pattern, so the scanning galvo motor adopts X and Y dual motors to control one point at a time, and the scanning frequency controls the position of different points at different times 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 way of a movie principle.

Application of laser galvo

The galvo system is a high-precision and high-speed servo control system composed of a drive board and a high-speed swinging motor, mainly used for laser marking, laser engraving, stage lighting control, laser punching, and so on.

The scanning galvo has many advantages, including a wide scanning angle, the ability to scan multi-wavelength beams, high accuracy, and a transmittance approaching 100%. As a mechanical scanner that truly transmits motion to physical mirrors, the scanning galvo is limited by the laws of physics. Generally, this means that they can only be used for frequencies between a few hundred Hz and a few kHz.

Although physics can determine how fast a physical mirror can rotate due to the force (torque) generated by the motor and the mass (inertia) of the mirror, this is not always obvious because before resonance is overcome, other laws of physics determine how fast the motor and mirror can move. Typically, before the motor has fully exploited its ability to generate larger scan speeds, resonance in the system has already caused the projected image to become distorted.

Through the improvement of accuracy, speed, and laser power, scanning galvo has become a very important tool in laser processing. Its market has expanded from traditional marking and rapid prototyping applications to laser material processing in multiple fields, including cutting, welding, surface treatment, polymer welding, and other applications. Scanning galvo technology and innovative mechanical and electronic design concepts, especially new materials and intelligent solutions for mirror technology, have adapted to new market requirements. High-brightness laser sources have opened a bright future for scanning galvo!