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nmLaser Products, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of high irradiance laser shutters, announces its new FlexSorb line of high performance laser shutters incorporating an innovative non-contact electromagnetic design and superior thermal dissipation. The new FlexSorb laser shutters will be on display at Photonics West in January 2010.

The new FlexSorb family of shutters features a high damage threshold, quick switching speed, small size and quiet operation. The only moving part is a low-mass, flexible, ferromagnetic cantilever membrane that is moved in and out of the beam by non-contact electromagnetic techniques, greatly reducing opening and closing shock, vibration and wear.

Engineers at nmLaser developed the FlexSorb shutter line with its non-contact flexure designed to close at a position slightly away from the pole, essentially floating in air to eliminate any potential vibration or bounce caused by impact deceleration of even the low-mass flexure.

These flexures are unaffected by foreign particles clinging to the magnetic pole and offer much longer lifetimes. Wear particulate accumulation is extremely low, with off-the-shelf models rated for clean room use. All units are immersion cleaning compatible and can be provided for clean room type applications.

Slightly overdamped controllers eliminate system ring, ensuring efficient energy transfer to the magnet. The heat from the efficient magnetic design is merged with the laser optical absorption heat, and is dissipated using thermal conduction to a common, convenient mounting surface, achieving superior thermal dissipation. The built in beam dump absorbs high CW power levels with excellent damage resistance from high fluence pulsed lasers.

Engineered materials, geometry and surface morphology give very low backscatter from DUV through FIR wavelengths. Units are designed for use with 24 V type circuits with a timed impulse to open and a lower voltage for long term hold. Position sensors, both logic circuit and mechanical switch, are offered on most models.

Aperture sizes range from 3 mm to 14 mm. Fast switching speeds target OEM safety interlock and processing application requirements, ranging from under 10 msec to 50 msec for larger apertures.

"Our new FlexSorb line brings laser shutter technology into the 21st century and marks a dramatic improvement in laser shutter performance," says nmLaser Products President David Woodruff. "Advancements in electromagnetic design and thermal dissipation make FlexSorb the shutter of choice for even the most rigorous manufacturing and research applications."

Summary of Features:

• Non-contact electromagnetic design
• Superior thermal dissipation
• High damage threshold
• Models rated for clean room use
• Very low backscatter DUV through FIR
• Aperture sizes from 3 mm to 14 mm
• Switching speeds from under 10 msec to 50 msec
• Small size and quiet operation

Customizations addressing switching speed, holding efficiency, package miniaturization, cost and weight are available. Semi-customizations for apertures, body geometry or optical mirror and absorber requirements are also available.

Applications
nmLaser's FlexSorb family of shutters can be adapted to meet a wide variety of applications and optimized for specific OEM product lines. nmLaser supplies custom and off-the-shelf laser shutter solutions for an array of industries, including scientific, medical, military, semiconductor processing, biotechnology, micromachining, welding/cutting, lidar, chemical engineering, graphic arts, forestry and pollution monitoring.

About nmLaser Products, Inc.
nmLaser Products has been introducing new products and advancements in laser shutter technology since 1987. The company engineers and manufactures the world's safest and most reliable electromechanical laser shutters and accessories by meeting the production and integration challenges of OEMs and researchers in a continually growing number of broad and niche markets worldwide.

Innovations are geared toward meeting today's even higher industry standards, with an emphasis on enabling customers to build better, safer products at a lower cost. nmLaser Products has distributors in most major industrialized nations around the world. Service and support is provided from its design and manufacturing headquarters in San Jose, California.

SOURCE: nmLaser Products, Inc.