Non-back-reflecting polygon scanner with applications in surface cleaning

Abstract

Polygon mirror scanners are attracting considerable interest owing to their rapid speed and large scanning area. Here, we focused on the back-reflection effect of the polygon scanner. A new polygon scanner system was designed based on a geometric analysis. The final equations for the design express the position of the laser beam source having the largest scanning length without the reflected beam traveling back to the fiber. The proposed system performed a raster scan on an area. Additionally, a paint stripping experiment was conducted to demonstrate the potential use of our scanner in commercial laser cleaning applications.