JPH01133695A - Laser beam cutting head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To exactly cut a small designed shape member by constituting a laser beam pass between a laser beam entrance and a cutting nozzle while connecting a plurality of rotationable segments having mirrors. CONSTITUTION: A laser light supplied from a laser beam feeder 12 through a mirror 14 is transmitted to a cutting nozzle 30 having a focusing lens 33 through a passage in form of articulation having four mirrors 18, 24, 26, 32 arranged inside, connecting each of first and second segments 10, 20 rotated with motors 16, 22. It is desirable to arrange the rotation axis lines of the both segments 10, 20 above mentioned in parallel to each other. Each of the above-mentioned motors 16, 22 is selectively rotationable. They are driven and moved synchronously by a programmable processor to form a desired cutting pattern.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to laser cutting, and more particularly to cutting heads for use in such laser cutting.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Apparatus for cutting or otherwise cutting metal with a laser beam guided by the prior art is known in many industries. One industry for which such laser cutting is particularly suited is the automotive industry, where a large number of openings in the bodies of metal vehicles are cut by laser. The laser beam is directed to the location to be cut and passed through a cutting head that is moved through the desired pattern adjacent to the object to be cut.

Conventional laser cutting equipment uses an
-Y equipment is used. The cutting head is mounted on the Z@ and moves into and out of engagement with the object to be cut.

These devices have a significant disadvantage in that the size of the opening that can be cut is limited by the dimensions of the device. This is particularly a problem in the automotive industry and other technical fields where it is necessary to cut circles with particularly small diameters, i.e. less than about 20 m.

These devices also suffer from overshoot problems.

Because of the use of an X-Y pawl device, or even an r-Q pawl device,
Circular or other curved patterns are difficult to obtain accurately.

It is known that circles can be cut by a laser beam by using two mirrors fixed at a desired radial distance. During such cutting the mirror is rotated. Such cutting is problematic because the smallest diameter that can be cut is relatively large and limited by the distance between the mirrors.

An object of the present invention is to provide a laser cutting head of compact design that is particularly suitable for cutting small circles and other small design shapes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, a laser beam inlet, a cutting nozzle, an articulated laser beam path between said inlet and said cutting nozzle, a first laser beam path connected to said inlet; the laser beam path including a rotatable segment and a second segment coupled to the first rotatable segment in receiving relation to the laser beam and having an axis disposed parallel to an axis of rotation of the first segment; and wherein the second segment is connected to the cutting nozzle.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the inlet is connected to the cutting nozzle via four laser beam transmitting mirrors.

Still further, in accordance with a preferred embodiment, the cutting head further comprises a first motor for selectively rotating said first segment and a second motor selectively rotating said second segment.
Contains a motor.

According to yet another preferred embodiment, the first and second motors are driven by a programmable processor to provide synchronized movement to create a desired cutting pattern. I.J.
It can pass.

Also according to the invention, a laser beam inlet, a cutting nozzle and four laser transmission mirrors are provided between the front inlet and the cutting nozzle, forming a first rotatable segment connected to said inlet. With articulated laser beam paths.

a second linearly movable segment coupled to the first rotatable segment in receiving relation to a laser beam, the second segment being coupled to the cutting nozzle; - A cutting head is provided.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to a laser cutting head that can be used in any laser cutting operation where cutting accuracy is required and compact equipment is desired. This cutting head can be attached to and used on any conventional robot, X-Y claw device, automatic cutting device, etc. Such cutting heads are particularly useful in the automotive industry, but are not limited to such applications. In each of these devices, the laser beam is directed through a suitable hollow passage of a laser beam delivery device and through a cutting head.

The mechanical nature of current equipment necessitates the present invention.

The cutting head of the present invention is shown in side and front sectional views in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, and includes a first rotatable laser receiving segment 10. It includes a second rotatable segment 2o and a cutting nozzle 30. The first segment 1o can be a laser beam supply device 1 of any design.
It is connected to 2. In this case only the end of the feed device 12 is shown, but it includes a mirror 14 that directs the laser beam to the entrance of the first segment 10.

A first motor 16 is coupled to the first segment 1o so that they rotate together in the direction of the arrow. Motor 16 may be any suitable speed control motor, but may be a miniature D with a tachometer and optical encoder.
It is preferable to use a C motor, and the timing belt 17
and a toothed gear, a bevel gear, or any other suitable means. It will be appreciated that the motor 16 rotates the entire cutting head, but must therefore have sufficient power to do this.

A mirror 18 is provided on segment 10 to pass the laser beam to second segment 20 .

The second segment 20 is a second high ratio gear motor 22
It is designed to rotate at the same time. The motor 22 is preferably a high ratio DC miniature gear motor with a tachometer and optical encoder, and the second segment is controlled by a timing belt 23 and toothed gears, by bevel gears, or by any other suitable means. is connected to. It will be appreciated that motor 22 rotates only the second segment, thereby fixing its radius when cutting a circle and determining its pattern when cutting other design shapes.

The second segment 20 also has a receiving mirror 24 arranged to receive the laser beam passed from the mirror 18 in the first segment 10 and a receiving mirror 24 that receives the laser beam from the mirror 24 and cuts the laser beam. It includes a light transmitting mirror 26 arranged to pass through the nozzle 30.

The cutting nozzle 3o includes a mirror 32 that receives the laser beam from the second segment 20 and transmits it to a focusing lens 33 arranged in the sleeve of the nozzle 3o. Preferably, the cutting nozzle 30 also includes means for adjusting the distance of the cutting nozzle from the cutting surface during the cutting operation.

It is a special feature of the invention that the dynamic performance is significantly improved compared to conventional laser cutting equipment. Therefore, high-precision cutting can be performed without the need to reduce the cutting speed at corners or when changing the cutting direction. The cutting head is moved at a constant tangential velocity (angular velocity is proportional to the diameter for circles). The structure of the present invention provides a maximum range of cutting motion for the nozzle with a device of small size and relatively light weight.

The operation of the device of the invention is as follows. A laser beam is applied from a laser beam supply bag @12 to the first segment 10 via a mirror 14.

This beam is then passed through four mirrors 18, 24, 26 and 3
2 and lens 33 through the cutting nozzle which has already been moved adjacent to the object to be cut by suitable means such as a robot or an X-Y device. 1st
motor 16 and second motor 22 are rotated as necessary to cause the cutting nozzle 30 to track the desired pattern to be cut on the cutting surface, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. For example, the first and second motors 16.22 are coupled to a processor unit (not shown) which provides rotation to these motors and synchronizes them to create a desired shape at the tip of the cutting nozzle. A program is given to give the pattern of movement.

By utilizing a combination of two rotational degrees of freedom to move the cutting nozzle 30 from the longitudinal axis of the first segment 10 to the fully extended orientation shown in FIG. It is recognized that it is possible to draw a circle with a diameter twice the distance to the directional axis and to draw a line of any shape Ii <.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a laser cutting head constructed and operable in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention is shown.

The embodiment of FIG. 3 includes a first segment or rotatable portion 102 and a second segment or linearly movable portion 10.
4. The housing 100 includes a housing 100 including a housing 100 including a housing 4. The rotatable part 102 forms an L-shaped part. Moving part 104
is interlocked with the rotatable portion 102 to perform a linear motion relative to this rotatable portion.

A cutting nozzle 120 is attached to this linearly moving portion 104.

Mounted within the housing 100 are four laser transmitting mirrors 106, 108, 110 and 112. A first mirror 106 is coupled to a laser beam supply device to receive the laser beam and transmit it to the L-shaped rotatable portion 102 . A second mirror 108 is mounted on the rotatable portion 102 and receives the laser beam from the first mirror 106 and transmits it to a third mirror 110.

Third mirror 110 further transmits this laser beam to fourth mirror 112 which directs it to a lens (not shown) in laser beam cutting nozzle 120. It is understood that the fourth mirror must be mounted at an angle of 45 degrees with great precision to the horizontal to ensure the accuracy of the transmission of the laser beam.

A motor (not shown) is coupled to the rotatable portion 102. The motor is coupled to rotatable portion 102 by a timing belt for rotating it about axis 116 in the direction of the arrow.

The moving part 104 of the cutting head is arranged for linear movement within the housing as indicated by arrow r. In the illustrated embodiment, portion 104 is arranged to slide along a track 118 within the housing.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the invention is not limited to the devices described above. Rather, the scope of the invention is limited only by the claims that follow.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a side view of a laser cutting head constructed and operative in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a front sectional view of the laser cutting head of FIG. 1; and FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a constructed and operative sea 1j-cutting head; 10... First rotatable laser receiving segment, 12... Laser beam supply device, 14.18
...ζ2, 16...First motor, 17.23...Timing belt, 20...Second rotatable segment, 22...
...Second high ratio gear motor, 24...
・Light receiving mirror, 26... Light sending mirror, 30.120... Cutting nozzle, 32... Kutsu, 33... Focusing lens, 100... - Housing, 102... Rotatable part or first segment, 104... Linearly moving part or second segment, 106.108°110.112... Laser transmission mirror , 116...
...axis, 118...truck.

Claims (6)

[Claims] (1) a laser beam inlet, a cutting nozzle, and an articulated laser beam path between the inlet and the cutting nozzle, the laser beam path having a laser beam coupled to the inlet; a first rotatable segment coupled to the first rotatable segment to receive a laser beam; four mirrors arranged to transmit a laser beam to a nozzle, the cutting nozzle being coupled to the second segment. (2) the second segment includes a rotatable segment coupled to the first rotatable segment for receiving a laser beam, the axis of rotation of which is parallel to the axis of rotation of the first segment; A laser cutting head as claimed in claim 1 in which the laser cutting head is arranged. (3) a first for selectively rotating the first segment;
3. The laser cutting head of claim 2, further comprising: a second motor for selectively rotating said second segment. 4. The laser cutting head of claim 3, wherein said first and second motors are driven by a programmable processor to provide synchronized movement to produce a desired cutting pattern. (5) the second segment is coupled to the first rotatable segment to receive a laser beam;
2. A laser cutting head as claimed in claim 1, including a linearly movable segment configured for linear movement relative thereto. 6. Claim 5, wherein the first rotatable segment includes an L-shaped segment, and three of the mirrors are disposed within the L-shaped segment to transmit a laser beam. Laser cutting head as described.