Construction Laser Systems

Construction lasers are helpful and essential tools in making accurate measurements. They also save time, speeding up the construction planning process. Some of the uses of laser levels include measuring elevation and distance, carrying out excavation work, plumbing landscaping, and concrete leveling.

There are several kinds of laser equipment: laser distance measuring tools, rotary laser levels, line laser levels, plumb and pipe lasers. The laser distance tool applies a laser beam to measure the distance. Rotary lasers are especially used in larger exterior work sites and can also be utilized indoors, depending on the model. Line laser levels are used mainly for measuring walls and ceilings. Plumb lasers are applied as a reference point for level. Pipe lasers are used for aligning the pipe and setting the grade.

There is a variety of laser distance-measuring tools. What all these tools have in common is that they have photodetectors that receive the reflected light from their target. The distance is determined through the speed of light and the time taken for the light to travel to and from the target.

One of these laser distance-measuring tools is the pulsed time-of-flight method. It is an optical system of laser level where the detector acts as an antenna for the device. It is commonly applied in missile and rocket tracking. Another one is the beam modulation telemetry which uses a continuous wave laser. It deals with the time measured between the transmission of the beam and the receiving beam at a given sine wave length. It is mainly used in surveying land.

A laser distance-measuring tool, the Leica Disto, includes closed loop and interferometric measurement. In a closed loop, mirrors are set up facing each other with the light being reflected and bounced back, creating frequencies that correspond to the length of the cavity.

Compared with the other kinds of laser level, the interferometric measurement is the most accurate, because when the laser beam is split into two parts and brought together again, the light waves will either blend in together or take each other out, creating interference. One beam acts as a point of reference while the other as a measurement. The variation of the two beams and the distance are determined by a photoreceptor.