Our Patented Technology
Flexure technology and closely coupled magnetic designs reduced the moving parts to a single cantilever beam movement. Several versions of this technology were developed for specific types of applications. USA and international patents were granted. The earlier years were focused on high speed and high power laser shutters for research applications.
NM Laser continued to grow and add products to fill niche markets for researchers and OEM’s. In the 1990’s, a large number of safety interlocking and processing shutters were developed with interlock controller systems to meet the growing demand for laboratory and instrument safety. Our OEM base expanded greatly during these years.
Shutter Families
We offer two families of shutters:
The Modulation/Exposure/Gating series provide fast switching speeds and high repetition rates, with higher electrical power dissipation use. These models require sophisticated electronic drive circuits to achieve specified switching performance. Our drive circuit is the CX4000B.
The Safety Interlock & Process series are designed for moderate switching speed applications, at low repetition rates, typically in safety interlocking or industrial processing. The electrical power dissipation is very low. These models are typically held open for long periods of time and are designed to be used with very simple drive circuits, most from 12 or 24 VDC. Typical drivers are the capacitor discharge circuit or a pulse width modulated current driver chip. Our CX4000B. is a cost effective plug & go driver.
Optically, the two shutter families are very similar. Power handling and damage threshold ratings vary little. The key difference is flexure beam stiffness and electromagnet power.
We recommend the laser shutters to be mounted very near to the laser for safety purposes, and to take advantage of switching across the smallest diameter location of the beam. In cases of very high fluence, the shutter may be mounted further downstream where divergence has expanded the beam. Beam seal tubes are typically used between the shutter and the laser or other optical elements.
Laser shutters are optical elements and need the care and attention of optical elements when in shipment, handled, stored, and in use. Typical laboratory conditions provide a clean environment. Precautions should be taken in some industrial environments where debris is generated. The optical elements must be kept clean for proper operation.
Safety Interlock And Process Control Laser Shutters
Laser shutters in this group are designed for high optical power and damage thresholds, but with lower emphasis on speed.
The Safety Interlock Laser Shutter is normally kept open for long periods of time, closing only for breaches in the safety system or at the end of an experiment.
The Process Control Laser Shutter is used at frequent intervals, allowing equipment to move or change in between optical exposures. An example would be laser cutting. At various points, the laser shutter would block the laser to allow table repositioning and cutting to resume.
All Safety Interlock and Process Control Laser Shutters are fail-safe and close upon power loss. They are not dependent on gravity to close.
Switching speed requirements for safety and process applications are moderate. The flexure technology used in these products offer inherent fast switching without developing large heat loads in the electromagnet. Typical speeds are a few tens of milliseconds.
Many of these applications can use low power, simple electronic drive systems. See our Application Notes page for more on OEM and user built drive circuits. Our Laser Shutter Controller product CX4000B. is the most convenient way to drive the shutter and extract all benefits of the shutter design.
Position sensors are on most of the models, providing a safety or process circuit with verification that the laser shutter did indeed open or close as it was instructed to do from the power circuit.
These position sensors are completely independent of the power circuit. They audit the physical movement of the flexure blade, with either solid-state opto-interrupters for smaller apertures, or mechanical micro-switches for larger apertures.
The solid-state sensors are powered from regulated 5 VDC at about 20 mA current budget. There are two output leads which yield a logic hi or low depending on laser shutter state.
The output signals are logic ready TTL totem pole outputs, able to drive up to about 5 mA. This signal can be used to control software or to drive power electronics for warning light illumination.
The mechanical micro-switches provide contact closure for the open and closed states. There are two leads for each switch. Typically switches are operated at 5, 12, 24 VDC at a few tens of mA, but are rated for use at several Amps. Contact resistance is less than 5 ohms with cable loss included.
Many of these models are driven with user-built circuitry. Switching speed is very dependent on the circuit, with more advanced circuits providing faster speeds. In general, all models close in less than 50 msec, with an approximate rule of 4 msec per mm of aperture diameter.