One thing worth to note is that "It does not need high energy to start a fire, but instead it needs high energy on unit area/volume (power) to start a fire". After it started, it will spread, no energy input is needed any more. It is the same principle of EM cat or EM gun. Shooting an 30 ton Aircraft needs energy in couple of kWh, nothing big, but consuming that amount within few seconds by a EM cat than 48/72 hours by a home refrigerator makes something huge. The laser gun's spot is tinny compared with a match (6 mm flat spot vs. 30mm fireball), so although the total energy may be on the same scale, the power (energy density) is hundreds times higher, making it start the fire easily at a far distance.
chinese laser weapon development
- Thread starter maozedong
- Start date
Are you asking me or Skywatcher?
The weapon in the picture is made by Hengan (恒安) police equipment. See the posters and name of the company in red circle below. The video did not mention the designation of the weapon besides calling it "High energy laser rifle".
I do not know Hengyun. SCMP article is the first time I heard of ZKZM-500.
[Edit]
ZKZM is short for "Zhong Ke Zhong Mei", 中科中美, which is a company associated to China Science Academy, Xi'an Electro-Optical institute who specialize in high power fiber laser for manufacturing process like 3D printing.
Whether ZKZM entered weapon business is possible, but it seems so far that the designation of "ZKZM-500" seems unfounded. Maybe SCMP author mixed things up in that the author put legitimate designation of "ZKZM-500" from somewhere else onto a weapon from Hengan.
Skywatcher
Captain
the second picture in the article shows the ZKZM 500. As for ZKZM, it sounds like they're the contract manufacturer for the first patch.
Original video from CCTV is on youtube.
p.s. Relevant content starts at 8:06.
p.s. Relevant content starts at 8:06.
Ok just to clarify, the weapon in this video is the same one as the picture in SCMP article, which is made by HengAn.
ZKZM-500 is something else that is described in the scmp article but had no relation to the picture or this video.
It is the original source for taxiya's video and as for ZKZM-500, I think it is a case of bad reporting by the SCMP article. I did some research on ZKZM-500 and all I can find are industrial cutting lasers.
Skywatcher
Captain
Well, I imagine that ZKZM is only really building the laser part of the ZKZM 500; hence the need to find a partner for production.
As for skepticism of the power of the laser:
So if a 1 kilowatt laser is sufficient to kill someone in a couple-several seconds, then a 100-500 watt laser is probably enough to burn clothing and cause 'skin carbonization' in 2 seconds.
You probably could fit a lithium based battery onto a 6 pound laser rifle for thirty minutes of operations, but that's like citing the arms show figures for an air defense system (the 800m range, 1000 shot battery figures depend a lot upon context we don't know).
As for skepticism of the power of the laser:
So if a 1 kilowatt laser is sufficient to kill someone in a couple-several seconds, then a 100-500 watt laser is probably enough to burn clothing and cause 'skin carbonization' in 2 seconds.
You probably could fit a lithium based battery onto a 6 pound laser rifle for thirty minutes of operations, but that's like citing the arms show figures for an air defense system (the 800m range, 1000 shot battery figures depend a lot upon context we don't know).
This is the second and only other picture in the SCMP article. It is a CG, not a photo. When clicking the "i" icon, it does say "ZKZM-500".
So the author
- showed a photo of another weapon
- had a CG named "ZKZM-500"
- talked about specifications and functions that is demonstrated by the other weapon. The other weapon has been physically demonstrated both in the field and in a expo.
As of ZKZM being some kind of contract manufacturer, I highly doubt it. It is not specialized in miniaturize laser equipment. They have their own source of tech (China Science Academy), they make things from that source. Not some kind of specialized manufacturer like Foxcon (making phones for everybody).