>> It’s mesmerizing to watch. When the laser is done cutting, sometimes the leftover material just falls out, but sometimes it stays in place.
Please be very careful when watching an industrial laser, particularly one cutting shiny metal. I would honestly support any reg that puts hard barriers between eyeballs and running laser equipment. Invest in a good camera and watch the show on a screen.
It is enclosed. They show a picture later and there's a green safety window to view the work piece in the machine, that material will be designed to block whatever wavelength of light the laser is using (most likely IR, and what do you know safety glasses for the IR bands are mostly green).
No. Such materials are designed to let through all but the narrow wavelengths expected of the laser. And some IR "shields" actually reflect IR light rather than absorb it. A proper laser shield should not be engineered to do the minimum necessary. Metal works. Wood works. Even blackout curtains bought at walmart can work.
Properly rated safety shields can absolutely be transparent and properly block the necessary wavelengths. The color comes from the wavelengths they're blocking. Weird stance to take that the entire industry is wrong about laser safety.
Lasers emit a known frequency unless they're extremely expensive and designed to create broad spectrums, it's only with cheap consumer units you'll see IR diodes being poorly upconverted to a different color with IR leakage. These cutters use CO2 or fiber lasers and IR is the desired output..
Please be very careful when watching an industrial laser, particularly one cutting shiny metal. I would honestly support any reg that puts hard barriers between eyeballs and running laser equipment. Invest in a good camera and watch the show on a screen.