Excellent beam qualities of the latest generation of laser sources like fiber and disc lasers and a laser power in the region of several kW enable new possibilities in laser materials processing. These constraints put high demands on the optics, whose task is to focus the laser radiation to the processing area with the highest, possible performance taking into account the boundary conditions of the addressed application.
The intention of this paper is to describe the demands of the interface between the optical fiber and the workpiece, the laser processing head, taking into account the demands of the components from the collimator to the protection glass. Thereby the focus of the report will be on the industrial realization of the optical systems based on the physical boundaries, which will be described in detail in this article. Some particular features of the processing heads with respect to different operational areas will be addressed and proved industrial solutions will be showed.