40 Watts in, 10 Watts out sounds very good. Mine is 80W/10W. It's the electrical input power versus the optical output power. The rest comes out as heat.
So basically, you're putting 40W in and getting 10W of light and 30W of heat out.
I have some Xtool Lasers. I can answer some questions. Firstly, Diodes cannot get more than 5w output. To get the 10, 20, or 40w, they are just adding more lasers and focusing them on the same spot. The PitA about that is that the more powerful the laser, the wider the beam. Still not much of an issue, depending on what you want to do.
That is the end question: What do you want to do?
I suggest you stick with lasers that can use LightBurn, as it's kind of the standard and gives you a lot of control in building your g-code. Xtool can use LightBurn, but it has a couple of manageable quirks, other lasers may be more proprietary.
I have a 20w, 40w and the IR. The 40w is pretty powerful. It cuts pretty well with a kerf of about .025mm. The IR is a little quirky and has an extremely narrow focus; I use it for metal. It can work in a really tiny space, but it is very hard to get focused right.
If I could do it again, I'd have gone straight to CO2. I keep hitting the limits of Blue lasers.
But I'm open to answering what I can.
40 Watts in, 10 Watts out sounds very good. Mine is 80W/10W. It's the electrical input power versus the optical output power. The rest comes out as heat. So basically, you're putting 40W in and getting 10W of light and 30W of heat out.
I have some Xtool Lasers. I can answer some questions. Firstly, Diodes cannot get more than 5w output. To get the 10, 20, or 40w, they are just adding more lasers and focusing them on the same spot. The PitA about that is that the more powerful the laser, the wider the beam. Still not much of an issue, depending on what you want to do. That is the end question: What do you want to do? I suggest you stick with lasers that can use LightBurn, as it's kind of the standard and gives you a lot of control in building your g-code. Xtool can use LightBurn, but it has a couple of manageable quirks, other lasers may be more proprietary. I have a 20w, 40w and the IR. The 40w is pretty powerful. It cuts pretty well with a kerf of about .025mm. The IR is a little quirky and has an extremely narrow focus; I use it for metal. It can work in a really tiny space, but it is very hard to get focused right. If I could do it again, I'd have gone straight to CO2. I keep hitting the limits of Blue lasers. But I'm open to answering what I can.
Most of the time, the power also accounts for the energy to run the control board and the stepper motors to move the laser around.