Power lost over distance?

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@Chrik

power traveling in the air

Laser power air compensation

Our CO2 laser has a cut area of 600mm x 1000mm, with the tube mounted at the back along the Y axis, coming down the left side, then going down to the focusing lens. When the focusing lens is closest to the tube, the engraving depth is slightly higher than when the focusing lens is at the far-right, front end. So, when I engrave a 5mm square in a piece of 1/8" plywood in the top left at 10% power, it will engrave about .015" deep. In the front-left, it will only be about .011" deep, in the rea…