This is also a very confusing area. To pop up a balloon with a lower power burning device, such as a 200mW Laser pointer, you need to keep the color of the target in mind. For example, if you want to pop a white balloon, it will actually reflect a lot of light and heat and divert it away from the balloon’s rubber, which makes it pop at lower output power (if not impossible) Much more difficult. A simple solution is of course to use a Class IV laser with a power of more than 500mW, or just use a black balloon. You can even use a white balloon and use a black magic pen to draw a circular target, which actually changes the way heat and light are absorbed by the balloon rubber, making it possible to pop out as if it became completely black. The same applies to the match head, put some black magic pens on it to speed up the burning time.
Today, there are actually thousands of Chinese companies and manufacturers supplying laser engraver purportedly up to 10,000mW or higher. In China, there are no real regulations regarding product claims, which means that many people will claim that the lasers in question are very high power. Now, we started doing business at BigLasers.com in 2005 and have witnessed technological changes over the years. Outside of the strict military contract, there is no other place where handheld lasers exceeding 5,000mW or 5W can be used. This technology is not used by the general public at all, so keep this in mind when buying lasers.
In addition, the cheapest blue laser pointer out there do not use IR (infrared) filters, which means that their power readings are not only false but also inaccurate. Because the unit without a filter will emit visible light and invisible light at the same time, its power reading is higher than the actual visible light. By using infrared filters, we can ensure that the beam is inherently safer and you can get accurate power readings. For us, a 100mW green laser at 532nm is actually a 100mW green laser, and no invisible light will distort the reading.