Before I had made my "homebuilt CVL system" I had a chance to play with the commercial russian CVL called LGI-101. I had found it in the University laser lab NOS in unpacked factory crates. The lab didn't use it for anything since buying it in 1989. It is a first-generation CVL with only 3W of rated power on both 510 and 578 nm lines, despite the large size of the laser head and tube. The laser tube and the head were in separate wooden crates, the power unit stood nearby. After putiing it all together I got very bright laser beam, which burns wood slowly even in unfocused condition, because its diameter is relatively small -- 12 mm. Unlike the UL-102 tube, the LGI-101 one is in full glass envelope, much smaller in diameter but nearly twice longer than UL102. Thermal insulation is worse than in UL102, so it requires much more input electric power for the same output as UL102, electrical efficiency is lower.
The power unit is a big cabinet made of metal and devided in four sections, containing HVDC source with the 3-phase HV transformer, variac voltage regulator, which consists of 3 variacs сoupled with plastic gears, master oscillator and trigger circuit for the thyratron, and main thyratron pulse circuit. The thyratron in it is the biggest I've ever seen in person -- 25 cm tall and 15 cm in diameter, with water cooling. Some our local Tesla coilers would just drool when seeing this cabinet full of high voltage, which weighs nearly a half of ton. :drool:
Anyway, despite some drowbacks this laser works great!
Unfortunately I was not allowed to move it to my laser collection at my home:yabbmad::yabbmad:
All pictures won't fit one post, so I'll make a couple of them.
The power unit is a big cabinet made of metal and devided in four sections, containing HVDC source with the 3-phase HV transformer, variac voltage regulator, which consists of 3 variacs сoupled with plastic gears, master oscillator and trigger circuit for the thyratron, and main thyratron pulse circuit. The thyratron in it is the biggest I've ever seen in person -- 25 cm tall and 15 cm in diameter, with water cooling. Some our local Tesla coilers would just drool when seeing this cabinet full of high voltage, which weighs nearly a half of ton. :drool:
Anyway, despite some drowbacks this laser works great!
Unfortunately I was not allowed to move it to my laser collection at my home:yabbmad::yabbmad:
All pictures won't fit one post, so I'll make a couple of them.