GB2158991A - Laser tube casing - Google Patents

Abstract

A hand held moulded plastic casing 3 contains grooves 4 for accurately holding and aligning a laser beam generator by way of O-rings, with cable anchoring means 6 to prevent both the lateral and rotational movement of laser generator. The invention has application in surgery, therapeutic treatments, laser pointing and materials processing. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Laser tube casing This invention relates to a mass-produced system for encasing and aligning a laser beam generator, consisting of two identical, injection moulded plastic sections which are glued together after said laser beam generator has been located into one of the plastic sections via "0" ring mountings, the power lead, cooling tubes or optical fibre bundles to said laser beam generator being ringed with a plastic strip which locates into a recess at the rear of each of the said plastic sections so that each of the said cords have no lateral or rotational movement to upset the alignment of the "0" ring mounted laser beam generator whose alignment within said casing is such as to ensure a clear pathway for the laser bream to emerge through the optical window at the tip of the said casing after the two said casings have been glued together.The invention allows for the rapid assembly of massproduced laser beam generator systems which are safe to hold in the hand despite the high voltages and heat associated with such laser beam generators whilst at the same time ensuring that there are no relative movements between between said casing and said laser beam generator during normal usage ensuring that the generated laser beam emerges from said casing unimpeded at all times. The invention has application in medical treatments demanding a compact, handheld, powerful laser beam generator, in lecture pointing and in material cutting, welding and workhardening applications.

Summary of Prior Art Prior art casings for laser beam generators were metallic, bulky and clumbersome to hold in the hand because of the large dimensions of the inefficient prior art laser beam generators and their casings, the hand-held portion of such prior art systems were in the form of the output ends of laser beam delivery systems such as complex articulated arms and fibre optic bundles, said laser beam genertors being remote from the hand. With such indirect, hand held laser beam delivery systems, the emerging laser beam was often distorted and reduced to the status of incoherent light due to multiple relfections and scatter either within individual optical fibres or via reflections and misalignment via a multitute of mirros.

In the present invention, the laser beam is actually generated within hand held system and the laser beam emerges undistoted from said system. As state of the art laser beam generators become more compact, powerful and efficient, the present invention becomes applicable in an increasing range of applications demanding such hand-held laser beam souces.

Background of the Invention One of the greatest demands made on laser systems is that of the surgeon who requires powerful laser beams to replace surgical knives. The advantage of the laser beam over the knife in surgery are many, for example, a laser beam is always free of contamination, it coagulates the blood as it cuts and it always remains sharp. However, the major diaadvantages of the laser beam compared to the surgeons knife are the bulkiness of the laser beam generators and the extreme safety precautions needed for its operation, ranging from electrical shock hazard to blindness and severe skin burns, particularly in the presence of oxygen.

To maximise the effectiveness of a surgeons' knife, the laser beam has to be generted within a compact, hand-held casing, which protects the surgeon from the electrical shock hazards and provides said surgeon with an undistorted, coherent laser beam of appropriate power and wave length.

The present invention provides a suitably compact, hand-held surgeons' laser knife, its plastic casing giving protection against electrical shock hazards and the stable alignment of the laser beam generator to allow for an undistorted laser beam emission.

Summary of the invention It is an object of the present invention to acheived a hand-held laser beam generator unit which generates a powerfull, unimpeded laser beam output which is superior to a surgeons' knife.

Another object of the invention is to allow the mass-production of laser beam generator units by locating the said laser beam generator within two "0" rings which in turn are located into grooves within two moulded plastic sections which when glued together form a compact hand-held laser beam generator unit.

A further object of the invention is to provide means of automatically aligning a laser beam generator within its casing so that the laser beam output emerges unimpeded from said casing.

A still further object of the invention is to provide means of locating the leads, tubes or optical fibre bundles to the said laser beam generator such that they do not move latterly or rotate in such a manner as to upset the alignment of said tube.

Another object of the invention is to provide an electrical hazard free casing for said laser beam generator.

The inventiond allows for the generation of a powerfull, hand held laser beam for medical, laser pointing and material processing applications in a safe manner.

The "0" ring locators of the invention can either locate the laser beam generator tube or a tube contaning the laser beam generator and its excitation sources. The casing or the said laser beam generator can be made water tight and contamination free by sealing its output tip via and optical window or optical lens and sealing the cable into the rear end.

For theraputic applications the invention can provide a direct laser beam output in the focussed or unfocussed mode. For surgical applications the inventions can provide focussed beam output over a range of wavelengths ranging up to several kilowatts.

The laser beam generators can take the form of helium-noon tubes, Nd-Yag rods excited either via conventional flashtubes, semiconductor light souces or a combination of both.

The laser beam generators can operate either in the continuous or pulsed modes and in divergent or convergent beams.

Also the laser output beam can be controlled by a foot switch or a fixed timer.

Brief description of the several views of the drawings A better understanding of the invention may be gained from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is emphasised that the ensuing teachings are exemplary and not limitative of the scope of the invention.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a schematic layout of a preferred system for the "0" ring mounting of a laser beam generator.

Figure 2 is a schematic layout of a preferred system for the injection moulding of one half of the outer casing of said laser beam generator.

Figure 3 is a schematic layout of preferred systems for the generation of laser beams in a laser tube containing a gaseous medium, a laser medium container containing a neodymium doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser rod and associated flashtubes for its excitation.

Figure 4 is a schematic layout of a preferred system for the generation of a laser beam in a neodymium doped yttrium aluminium garnet rod excited via radiation transported via an optical fibre bundle.

Figure 5 is a schematic layout of a laser beam generator utilising one end of a composite laser oscillatoroperating as a phased array transmitter.

Detailed description In Fig. 1 numeral 1 indicates the "0" ring mounting for laser beam generator indicated by numeral 2.

In Fig. 2, numeral 3 indicated the plastic casing, numeral 4 the "0" ring groove, numeral 5 the tip of said casing and numeral 6 indicates the cable locking groove to prevent both the latteral and rotational movement of the laser beam generator. In Fig. 2b a different view of one half of the moulded outer casing is shown.

In Fig. 3 numeral numeral 2 indicates the laser tube. In Fig. 3b numeral 8 indicates a tubular container containing laser rod indicated by numeral 9 and which is excited via flashtube indicated by numeral 1 0.

In Fig. 4a numeral 11 indicates and optical fibre bundle transporting the excitation radiation in rod 9.

In Fig. 5 numeral 1 2 indicates one end of a phased array oscillator whose output is collimated by lenses indicated by numerals 1 3 and 14.

The invention has applications in surgery, theraputic treatments, laser pointing and laser meterial processing.

Claims (7)

1. A hand-held, safe laser beam generator moulded casing with grooves to accommodate an "0" ring mounted laser beam generator so that said generator is aligned to emit an unimpeded laser beam output and with grooves to accommodate a cable so as to prevent latteral and rotational movement of said laser beam generator.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 which is made water tight via an optical window inserted into the tip and capable of being steralised.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 where the laser beam generator is a Helium-Neon tube.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1 where the laser beam generator is a flashtube excited neodymium yttrium aluminium garnet crystal.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1 where the laser beam generator is a laser crystal excited via radiation transported via and optical fibre bundle.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1 where the laser beam generator is the output end of a phased array composite oscillator.

7. A system as claimed in claim capable of emitting up to one kilo watts of direct laser beam energy.