Laser Beams Essay

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The properties of lasers make them highly useful for many industrial applications. For example, they can cut and drill materials without the need of a cutting or drilling tool. This eliminates the problems of tool wear and replacement as well as excessive noise. They're effective at machining difficult materials such as ceramics and very hard metals. Some types of laser beams can be directed through flexible optical fiber cables to inaccessible areas. Lasers are also used for welding, ablating, annealing, and metal hardening operations. Lasers can deliver highly focused energy to a small area. This allows them to do cutting operations that waste very little material and produce no edge burrs, both of which are common when using standard cutting …show more content…

The coherent beams of lasers allow them to travel long distances with little dispersion. This means its energy intensity, and therefore its injury potential, diminishes little with distance. High powered lasers can pack a lot of energy into a tight, narrow beam. This endangers any unprotected person within eyeshot of a powerful laser beam or a reflected stray beam. Some laser beams are visible. Laser beams within the visible light spectrum optically behave the same way that ordinary visible light does upon entering the eye. That is, they aren't stopped by the outer transparent layer of the eye but travel through and are focused by the eye's lens onto the retina where they destroy its light sensitive cells. This leaves a portion of the central vision permanently blinded. The focusing effect of the eye's lens can increase the laser's energy intensity thousands of times. Some laser beams are invisible. If a laser beam in the invisible light spectrum, such as ultraviolet or infrared, catches your eye, you won't know it. A powerful laser will cause immediate eye damage while a beam of lesser power will damage the eye over a longer exposure time. Because you can't see the beam, you won't blink or avert your gaze, and will allow the laser to cause injury. How Laser Accidents Affect

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