Infrared
The folks at Xtool LASER have created a low power Infrared (IR) LASER head for the D1 pro. Just received notice mine has shipped from China. Thankful I took advantage of a much lower advance order pricing.
My D1 pro has the 20 watt (output) UltraViolet (UV) LASER head. Its purpose is for intense burning and cutting combustable materials using the shorter wavelength power of UV light.
The IR head is a much lower 2 watts output at the opposite end of the visible light spectrum from UV, Infrared produces intense heat in a very tiny focus spot. Its application is for engraving metal surfaces and better vaporizing plastic for engraving.
In human terms, the UV is what gives us a sunburn and tan while infrared is the heat source used by radiant panel heaters like a toaster and other exposed wire (glowing) space heaters.
My purpose for desiring both is more in exploring the difference and applications as having a particular need.
2 watts is very low power but the claim is the very tiny focus spot (0.03mm x 0.03mm) really concentrates the available power. (15KW peak claimed). Mostly marketing hype to overcome the weak low power limitation impression.
More lines per inch (LPI) scans will certainly be required. That is not an issue as the hardware movement system is fully capable of whatever density scan is required. Run times will certainly be a bit longer. I have noted in the marketing of the IR LASER that very small engraving areas are usually the applications featured. Such as small jewelry pieces.
The very tiny spot focus and low power of 2 watts is not intended for high speed large surface designs. I expect performance similar to my first LASER which was certainly capable of good large area engraving but a much lower speeds than my UV D1 pro.
User experience reports will (of course) be posted later.