JP2021044279A - Fiber laser oscillator and maintenance system thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a fiber laser oscillator that can perform easy and high-quality maintenance work.SOLUTION: A fiber laser oscillator (91) includes a housing (1), a lid (16) detachably attached to one side of the housing (1), a fiber laser module (5) and an optical connection box (4) housed inside the housing (1), a shelf (19) on which the optical connection box (4) can be placed and which can be accessed from one side with the lid (16) removed, and a first air supply path (AR5) that ejects air supplied from the outside into an internal space (V1) of the housing (1) and a second air supply path (AR3) that supplies air to the fiber laser module (5).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a fiber laser oscillator and a maintenance system for the fiber laser oscillator.

Patent Document 1 describes a housing and a fiber laser oscillator including a fiber laser module, a distributor, and a beam switch housed inside the housing.
The distributor supplies dry air having a low dew point supplied from the outside into the fiber laser module.
The beam switch is an optical connection box that internally accommodates and holds a connection part in which a feeding fiber connected to a fiber laser module and a process fiber connected to an external laser machine are connected by a connector or fused. is there.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2013-239696

In the connector connection, the contamination of the end faces of the optical fiber may cause the optical fiber to become locally hot and burn out. Further, in the feeding fiber and the process fiber, there is a possibility that a local temperature rise occurs due to contamination of each optical fiber itself and the fiber is burnt out, or the wire is broken due to an unexpected reason.

Maintenance work when such a problem occurs is usually performed at the site where the fiber laser oscillator is installed. Specifically, the housing of the fiber laser oscillator is opened, the optical connection box is taken out, necessary parts are cleaned or members are replaced, and the connector is reconnected or the optical fiber is re-fused.

In general, it is desirable that maintenance work related to an optical fiber be performed in a low humidity environment where there is little dust and suitable for fusion. Therefore, since the maintenance work of the conventional fiber laser oscillator is performed at the installation location, it is not easy to remove dust, it is difficult to control the humidity, and it is difficult to perform high-quality work.
That is, it is desired that the fiber laser oscillator be improved so that the maintenance work can be easily performed with good quality.

Therefore, an object to be solved by the present invention is to provide a fiber laser oscillator and a maintenance system for the fiber laser oscillator that can easily perform high-quality maintenance work.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following configuration.
1) With the housing
A lid detachably attached to one side of the housing and
A fiber laser module and an optical connection box housed inside the housing,
A shelf on which the optical connection box can be placed and which can be accessed from the one side with the lid removed.
A first air supply path for ejecting air supplied from the outside into the internal space of the housing, a second air supply path for supplying the fiber laser module, and a second air supply path.
It is a fiber laser oscillator equipped with.
2) The fiber laser oscillator according to 1), characterized in that it is provided with a third air supply path having an on-off valve and a joint attached to the tip.
3) With the fiber laser oscillator described in 1),
An air supply unit that supplies the air to the fiber laser oscillator,
A tent unit that can be attached to the one side of the housing from which the lid has been removed so as to partition the internal space of the housing from the external space.
It is a maintenance system of a fiber laser oscillator configured including.
4) With the fiber laser oscillator described in 2),
An air supply unit that supplies dry air as the air to the fiber laser oscillator,
A tent unit that can be attached to the one side of the housing from which the lid has been removed so as to partition the internal space of the housing from the external space.
Consists of, including
The tent unit has a fourth end having a first end connectable to the joint of the third air supply path and having an air blowing unit at a second end opposite to the first end. This is a maintenance system for a fiber laser oscillator, which is characterized by having an air supply path of.
5) The fiber laser oscillator according to 4), wherein the tent unit has an insertion port through which a hand can be inserted from the outside to the inside, and the air blowing unit blows out the air toward the insertion port. Maintenance system.
6) The maintenance system for a fiber laser oscillator according to any one of 3) to 5), wherein the air is dry air having a dew point lower than that of the outside air.

According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an effect that easy and high-quality maintenance work can be performed.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a laser processing apparatus 93 provided with a fiber laser oscillator 91, which is an example of the fiber laser oscillator according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the fiber laser oscillator 91 at the S2-S2 position shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a maintenance state in which the tent unit 81 is attached to the fiber laser oscillator 91. FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of the fiber laser oscillator 91. FIG. 5 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the lid 16 of the fiber laser oscillator 91 is removed. FIG. 6 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the work shelf 18 and the mounting shelf 19 are pulled out in the state of FIG. 5 of the fiber laser oscillator 91. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the tent unit 81.

The fiber laser oscillator according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the fiber laser oscillator 91 and the maintenance system ST of the fiber laser oscillator 91, which are examples thereof.

The maintenance system of the fiber laser oscillator and the fiber laser oscillator according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the fiber laser oscillator 91 and the maintenance system ST, which are examples of each. Hereinafter, the fiber laser oscillator 91 is also referred to as an FL oscillator 91.
As shown in FIG. 3, the maintenance system ST includes a fiber laser oscillator 91 and a tent unit 81. The tent unit 81 is used by being attached to the fiber laser oscillator 91.

As shown in FIG. 1, the FL oscillator 91 is provided in the laser processing apparatus 93.
The laser machining apparatus 93 includes a machining main body 92, an FL oscillator 91, and an air supply unit 20, and irradiates the work W with a laser beam Ls to perform laser machining.

The FL oscillator 91 generates a laser beam and outputs it to the process fiber FB1. The processing main body 92 has a table 92f that supports the work W, and a processing head 92h that moves three-dimensionally above the table 92f.
The processing head 92h includes a collimator unit 92b having a collimator lens 92a, a bend mirror 92c, a focusing lens 92d, and a nozzle 92e.
The process fiber FB1 is connected to the collimator unit 92b, and the laser beam Ls generated by the FL oscillator 91 is supplied.
The laser beam Ls supplied to the collimator unit 92b is emitted so as to diverge from the outlet end face of the process fiber FB1 and is made into parallel light by the collimator lens 92a. After that, it is reflected by the bend mirror 92c and input to the focusing lens 92d, processed into a luminous flux that focuses at a predetermined position by the focusing lens 92d, and ejected from the nozzle 92e toward the table 92f.

The FL oscillator 91 has a box-shaped housing 1. A lid 16 is attached to one surface of the housing 1 so as to be manually attached and detached.

The air supply unit 20 passes the compressed air supplied from the compressor 21 through a gas separation membrane module to separate water vapor in the compressed air, and generates dry air having a dew point lower than that of the outside air. The air supply unit 20 outputs the generated dry air to the air supply path AR1 and the air supply path AR2 connected to the output port 201 and the output port 202, respectively.
The dry air output to the air supply path AR1 is supplied to the FL oscillator 91 to maintain the inside of the FL oscillator 91 at a low humidity.
The dry air output from the air supply path AR2 is supplied to the processing head 92h of the laser processing apparatus 93, and is used for preventing or removing dust from the optical member.

Next, the structure of the FL oscillator 91 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line S2-S2 of FIG. 1 in a normal use state of the FL oscillator 91. In FIG. 2, for convenience of explanation, each direction of up, down, front and back is indicated by an arrow. The left side is the front of the paper and the right side is the back of the paper. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to that of FIG. 2 and is a diagram showing a maintenance state of the FL oscillator 91. 4 and 6 are perspective views of the FL oscillator 91 in the states of FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively, as viewed from diagonally above the front left. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state in which the lid 16 is removed with respect to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the FL oscillator 91 has a rectangular parallelepiped housing 1 having an open front surface and a lid 16 detachably attached to the front surface of the housing 1.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the lid 16 is attached with a pair of handles 16a to be gripped by hand, and the process fiber FB1 is attached to the right edge portion of the lid 16 with the lid 16 attached to the housing 1. It has a notch 16b for passing through.

As shown in FIG. 2, inside the housing 1, a fiber laser module 5, a power supply unit 6, a control unit 7, and a distributor 31 are placed on the bottom wall 11 of the housing 1.
A turnout 32 is attached to the rear wall 12 of the housing 1.
The housing 1 has an upper work shelf 18 and a lower mounting shelf 19 as two upper and lower shelves inside. The work shelf 18 and the mounting shelf 19 are horizontally movablely supported by rollers 18a and 19a, respectively, between the left side wall 13 and the right side wall 14 of the housing 1 also shown in FIG.
The work shelf 18 and the mounting shelf 19 are manually movable between the storage position shown in FIG. 2 and the drawer position pulled forward as shown in FIG.

The above-mentioned air supply path AR1 is connected to the distributor 31 as an air pipe from the air supply unit 20.
An air supply path AR3 and an air supply path AR4 are arranged as air pipes between the distributor 31, the FL module 5, and the turnout 32, respectively.
From the turnout 32, an air supply path AR5 and an air supply path AR6 are extended as two air pipes. Hereinafter, the air supply path AR5 is also referred to as a first air supply path, the air supply path AR3 is also referred to as a second air supply path, and the air supply path AR6 is also referred to as a third air supply path.

An on-off valve 33 is provided in the air supply path AR5, and a nozzle 36 is attached to the tip thereof. The nozzle 36 is arranged at the center of the left and right near the rear wall 12 of the housing 1 in the front-back and left-right directions, and is generally located between the work shelf 18 and the mounting shelf 19 in the up-down direction. To.
The nozzle 36 ejects dry air sent from the distributor 31 over a wide range of up, down, left, and right when the on-off valve 33 is in the open state.

The air supply path AR6 is provided with an on-off valve 34, is supported by a holder 35 on the top wall 15 of the housing, and extends along the top wall 15 to the vicinity of the front end of the housing 1.
A joint 37 is attached to the tip of the air supply path AR6. As shown in FIG. 3, the air supply path can be extended by attaching the coupler 84a, which is a detachable joint, to the joint 37.

For the on-off valves 33 and 34, for example, an electromagnetic on-off valve is used, and an operator can control the on-off valves from the outside via the control unit 7 by electrical wiring (not shown). The on-off valves 33 and 34 may be valves that open and close manually.

Inside the FL module 5, a plurality of fiber laser module units (not shown) and a combiner that collectively outputs the laser beams Ls generated by each fiber laser module unit from the feeding fiber FB2 are housed.
The mounting shelf 19 has a size and strength on which the optical connection box 4 can be mounted. As shown in FIG. 2, an optical connection box 4 is placed on the mounting shelf 19. The optical connection box 4 and the FL module 5 are connected by a feeding fiber FB2.
Inside the optical connection box 4, the feeding fiber FB2 and the process fiber FB1 are connected by, for example, a connector, and the connecting portion is supported.

With this configuration, the laser beam Ls generated by the FL module 5 and output to the feeding fiber FB2 is connected to the process fiber FB1 in the optical connection box 4 and supplied to the processing head 92h of the laser processing apparatus 93.
Further, the dry air generated by the air supply unit 20 is supplied to the distributor 31 through the air supply path AR1.
The distributor 31 outputs the supplied dry air to the air supply path AR3 and the air supply path AR4.

While the air supply unit 20 is in operation, dry air is supplied from the air supply path AR3 to the inside of the FL module 5. Dry air is supplied to the turnout 32 from the air supply path AR4.

The dry air supplied to the turnout 32 is branched and output to the air supply path AR5 and the air supply path AR6. When the on-off valve 33 of the air supply path AR5 is opened, dry air is ejected from the nozzle 36 into the internal space V1 of the housing 1 as shown by the arrow DRa in FIG.
When the FL oscillator 91 is in operation, the on-off valve 33 is normally opened, and the internal space V1 of the housing 1 is filled with dry air at a positive pressure. As a result, the inflow of air from the external space Vg into the internal space V1 is substantially eliminated, and the ingress of dust from the outside can be prevented.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 to 6, a hook-and-loop fastener 17 that is one of a pair of hook-and-loop fasteners to be locked is attached to the front edge portion on the outer surface of the housing 1.
As shown in FIG. 3, the coupler 84a of the hose 84 of the tent unit 81 attached to the housing 1 during the maintenance work of the FL oscillator 91 can be connected to the connector at the tip of the air supply path AR6.

Next, the maintenance work of the FL oscillator 91 will be described.
In the maintenance work, re-fusion of the fusion-bonded connection portion of the optical fiber housed inside the optical connection box 4, cleaning of the end face of the connector connection portion, and the like are performed.
For maintenance work, as shown in FIG. 3, a tent unit 81 that simply partitions the internal space V1 of the housing 1 with respect to the external space Vg is attached to the front side of the housing 1 from which the lid 16 has been removed. Will be done.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the tent unit 81. Each of the up, down, left, right, front, and rear directions shown in FIG. 7 corresponds to the direction shown in FIG. 3, in which the tent unit 81 is attached to the housing 1.

The tent unit 81 has a frame body 82, a seat 83, a hose 84, and an air blowing unit 85.
The frame body 82 is assembled so as to correspond to each side of the rectangular parallelepiped, and functions as a frame of the tent unit 81.
The sheet 83 is a transparent and thin soft resin sheet member stretched on each surface except the rear surface of the frame body 82. In the seat 83, a radial notch is formed in a portion stretched on the front surface of the tent unit 81, and a pair of insertion ports 83a through which a hand and an arm can be normally inserted when necessary to close are provided on the left and right. Has been done.

The hose 84 functions as a fourth air supply path. The hose 84 is a member for flowing dry air supplied from the distributor 31. The hose 84 is suspended by a hanger 84b attached to an upper portion of the frame body 82 so as to extend substantially in the front-rear direction.
A coupler 84a is attached to the rear end portion, which is the first end portion of the hose 84. The coupler 84a can be inserted and removed from the joint 37 attached to the tip of the air supply path AR6 of the housing 1. The front end, which is the second end of the opposite end of the rear end of the hose 84, is connected to the air blowing unit 85.

The air blowing unit 85 is suspended above the front end of the frame body 82 by the bracket 85a. The air blowing unit 85 has a tubular main body 85b arranged in a posture extending in the left-right direction, and a slit-shaped blowing port 85c having a narrow width extending in the left-right direction below the main body 85b.

The rear portion of the frame body 82 is formed so as to substantially correspond to the outer shape of the front edge portion of the housing 1, and is fitted to the outside of the housing 1, and can be locked to the surface fastener 17 on the inner surface. A hook-and-loop fastener 86 is attached.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 3, the tent unit 81 can be attached to the front side of the housing 1 from which the lid 16 has been removed by locking the hook-and-loop fastener 86 to the hook-and-loop fastener 17.
By locking the hook-and-loop fastener 86 to the hook-and-loop fastener 17, the internal space V1 of the housing 1 and the internal space V81 of the tent unit 81 are simply integrated, and the space V181 shielded from the external space Vg is created. It is formed.
By opening the on-off valve 33 in this state and ejecting dry air from the nozzle 36, the space V181 is filled with positive pressure dry air.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the coupler 84a of the hose 84 is attached to the joint 37 of the air supply path AR6 and the on-off valve 34 is opened, the dry air supplied from the air supply unit 20 is discharged from the air blowout unit 85. It is ejected from 85c as an air flow as shown by the broken line arrow DRb in FIG. The airflow ejected from the air blowing unit 85 is an airflow that is narrow in the front-rear direction and extends downward in a line-like range extending to the left and right. The air blowing unit 85 functions as a so-called air curtain unit.
This prevents dust from entering the inside from the insertion port 83a when a hand is taken in and out from the insertion port 83a.

At the time of maintenance work, it is preferable to move the work shelf 18 and the mounting shelf 19 to the drawer position. For example, when performing the work of re-sealing the fusion-bonded connection portion housed in the optical connection box 4, the operator keeps the lid of the optical connection box 4 open as shown in FIG. A fiber splicer 94 is placed on the work shelf 18, an arm is inserted from the outside to the inside through the insertion port 83a of the tent unit 81, and refusion work is performed in the space V181.
Since the FL oscillator 91 includes a work shelf 18, small items 95 necessary for the work can be placed on the FL oscillator 91, which facilitates the work.

As described above, since the dry air is ejected from the nozzle 36, the maintenance work including the refusion work can be performed in the dry air with low humidity. Further, since the internal space of the housing 1 and the tent unit 81 has a positive pressure, it is unlikely that dust will enter from the outside, and maintenance work can be performed in an environment with little dust.
Further, since the dry air is ejected downward from the air blowing unit 85 arranged in the front upper part of the internal space V81 as shown by the broken line arrow DRb in FIG. 3, the invasion of dust from the gap of the insertion port 83a is suppressed. it can.

The high-pressure dry air filled in the tent unit 81 is discharged from a gap between the locked surface fastener 17 and the surface fastener 86, or from an exhaust port (not shown) provided for exhaust at the bottom of the seat 83 or the like. Discharge.

As described in detail above, the fiber laser oscillator 91 has an air supply path AR5 and a nozzle 36 that eject dry air supplied from the outside into the inside of the housing 1.
Further, the fiber laser oscillator 91 is attached to the front side of the housing 1 whose front surface is open by removing the lid, and is separated from the external space Vg and has a space V181 in which the internal space V1 of the housing 1 is expanded forward. The tent unit 81 to be formed can be attached.
As a result, the fiber laser oscillator 91 can be maintained by attaching the tent unit 81. The operator can easily perform the maintenance work in the space V181 which is partitioned from the external space Vg and has a small amount of dust in which the ingress of dust is prevented.
Since the space V181 can be filled with the dry air generated by the air supply unit 20 at a positive pressure, good quality fusion can be performed in the maintenance work.
The fiber laser oscillator 91 has a work shelf 18 and a mounting shelf 19 as shelves that can move in and out of the housing 1. As a result, the maintenance work can be performed in the internal space V81 of the tent unit 81, and the work becomes easy.
That is, in the maintenance system ST of the fiber laser oscillator 91 and the fiber laser oscillator 91, the operator can easily perform the maintenance work and perform the maintenance work with good quality.

The embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration, and may be a modified example as long as the gist of the present invention is not deviated.

The tent unit 81 is not limited to the one attached to the housing 1 with a hook-and-loop fastener. For example, it may be attached by other methods such as hooking with a hook or sandwiching with a magnet.
Since the internal space V1 becomes a positive pressure due to the ejection of dry air from the nozzle 36, the space between the housing 1 and the tent unit 81 does not have to be completely sealed.
A lighting device may be provided in the air blowing unit 85 of the tent unit 81 so that the hand of the work can be illuminated.

The FL oscillator 91 may include at least the air supply path AR5 among the air supply paths AR5 and AR6. If a sufficient flow rate of dry air is ejected from the nozzle 36 of the air supply path AR5 into the space 181 and the positive pressure in the space 181 can be sufficiently secured and maintained, the ingress of dust from the outside can be prevented.

The nozzle 36 attached to the tip of the air supply path AR5 may not be provided. When there is no nozzle 36, for example, the tip shape of the air supply path AR5 may be a shape in which dry air is diffused into the internal space V1 of the housing 1 and ejected.

The air supplied from the air supply unit 20 to the housing 1 does not have to be dry air. If the internal space V1 of the housing 1 can be partitioned from the external space Vg and maintained at a positive pressure, the ingress of dust from the outside can be prevented.
The sheet 83 of the tent unit 81 does not have to be a soft resin sheet. It may be a transparent, thin and hard resin sheet.

1 Housing 11 Bottom wall 12 Rear wall 13 Left side wall 14 Right side wall 15 Top wall 16 Lid 16a Handle 16b Notch 17 surface Fastener 18 Work shelf 18a Roller 19 Mounting shelf 19a Roller 20 Air supply unit 201, 202 Output port 21 Compressor 31 Distributor 32 Brancher 33, 34 On-off valve 35 Holder 36 Nozzle 37 Fitting 4 Optical connection box 5 Fiber laser module (FL module)
6 Power supply unit 7 Control unit 81 Tent unit 82 Frame body 83 Sheet 83a Insertion port 84 Hose 84a Coupler 84b Hanger 85 Air blowout unit 85a Bracket 85b Main body 85c Outlet port 86 Hook-and-loop fastener 91 Fiber laser oscillator (FL oscillator)
92 Machining body 92a Collimator lens 92b Collimator unit 92c Bend mirror 92d Condensing lens 92e Nozzle 92f Table 92h Machining head 93 Laser processing device 94 Fiber splicer 95 Small items AR1, AR2, AR3, AR4, AR5, AR6 Air supply path FB1 Process fiber FB2 Feeding Fiber Ls Laser Beam ST Maintenance System Vg External Space V1, V81 Internal Space V181 Space W Work

Claims (6)

With the housing
A lid detachably attached to one side of the housing and
A fiber laser module and an optical connection box housed inside the housing,
A shelf on which the optical connection box can be placed and which can be accessed from the one side with the lid removed.
A first air supply path for ejecting air supplied from the outside into the internal space of the housing, a second air supply path for supplying the fiber laser module, and a second air supply path.
A fiber laser oscillator equipped with. The fiber laser oscillator according to claim 1, further comprising a third air supply path having an on-off valve and a joint attached to the tip. The fiber laser oscillator according to claim 1 and
An air supply unit that supplies the air to the fiber laser oscillator,
A tent unit that can be attached to the one side of the housing from which the lid has been removed so as to partition the internal space of the housing from the external space.
A maintenance system for a fiber laser oscillator configured to include. The fiber laser oscillator according to claim 2 and
An air supply unit that supplies dry air as the air to the fiber laser oscillator,
A tent unit that can be attached to the one side of the housing from which the lid has been removed so as to partition the internal space of the housing from the external space.
Consists of, including
The tent unit has a fourth end having a first end connectable to the joint of the third air supply path and having an air blowing unit at a second end opposite to the first end. A maintenance system for a fiber laser oscillator, characterized by having an air supply path. The maintenance of the fiber laser oscillator according to claim 4, wherein the tent unit has an insertion port through which a hand can be inserted from the outside to the inside, and the air blowing unit blows out the air toward the insertion port. system. The maintenance system for a fiber laser oscillator according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the air is dry air having a dew point lower than that of the outside air.

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