JPH0314553B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a laser processing device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a laser processing device that processes objects, such as fabrics and leather, by scanning a laser beam.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 4 shows an example of a conventional laser processing apparatus. In this figure, to the left of the cutting conveyor 10 is placed a spreading device 14 in which a roll 12 of fabric wound thereon is set. Further, on the right side of the cutting conveyor 10, a scrap processing device 16 is arranged to accommodate and process the scraps after cutting. The fabric 18 to be processed is indicated by arrow F in the figure.
1, the scraps are fed from the spreading device 14 onto the cutting conveyor 10, and the scraps are stored in the scrap processing device 16 as shown by the arrow F2. Cutting conveyor 1
A drive mechanism 22 for scanning the laser head 20 is arranged approximately at the center of the laser head 20. This drive mechanism 22 includes a first drive body 24 and a second drive body 26.
It is composed of: A pair of first drive bodies 24 are provided on both sides of the cutting conveyor 10, and a second drive body 26 is provided so as to be movable in the direction of arrow F3. That is, the second
The driver 26 is moved in the direction of arrow F by the first driver 24.
Driven in 3 directions. The direction of this arrow F3 corresponds to the coordinate axis X assumed on the surface of the fabric 18.

A carriage 28 is attached to the second drive body 26, and this carriage 28 is attached to the second drive body 26.
6 in the direction of arrow F4 in the figure. The direction of this arrow F4 corresponds to the coordinate axis Y assumed on the surface of the fabric 18. A laser head 20 is fixed to the carriage 28. That is, the laser head 20 is moved along the coordinate axis X by the first driver 24.
The second driving body 26 scans in the direction of the coordinate axis Y.

Further, a laser oscillator 30 is arranged near the cutting conveyor 10, and an optical means 32 made of a mirror is arranged on the second driving body 26 described above. Further, the laser oscillator 30 includes a light guiding means 3.
4 are provided. The laser light emitted from the light guiding means 34 passes through the optical path L1 and enters the optical means 32, where the optical path is changed, and then passes through the optical path L2 to reach the laser head 20. The direction of the optical path L1 corresponds to the moving direction of the optical means 32, that is, the moving direction of the second driver 26 as indicated by the arrow F3. Further, the direction of the optical path L2 coincides with the moving direction of the laser head 20, that is, the moving direction of the carriage 28 as indicated by the arrow F4. Therefore, no matter how the laser head 20 moves, the laser light output from the laser oscillator 30 can reach the laser head 20 with ease.

Next, to explain the operation of the above conventional example,
The fabric 18 is transported along with the operation of the cutting conveyor 10 and passes through the laser head 20. The laser head 20 is scanned and moved by the drive mechanism 22, and as a result, the laser beam is scanned while drawing a fixed pattern on the fabric 18.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional laser processing apparatus as described above, the size of the drive mechanism 22 increases in proportion to the size of the pattern to be cut, and it is necessary to provide sufficient space for the arrangement. Therefore, the length of the laser processing apparatus, especially the cutting conveyor 10, becomes long. Further, the noise or vibration accompanying the operation of the drive mechanism 22 must also be considerably large.

Furthermore, since the movement range of the laser head 20 matches the cutting pattern, there is also the disadvantage that it is difficult to perform cutting at high speed. It is conceivable to provide multiple laser irradiation means to perform cutting at high speed, but in order to provide multiple laser irradiation means, it is necessary to provide multiple laser oscillators.
The equipment is quite large. Moreover, when cutting is performed using a plurality of laser irradiation means, it is impossible for the laser heads to cross each other and there is a limit to how close they can be, so care must be taken to prevent the laser heads from overlapping in movement.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a laser processing device that can perform predetermined processing at high speed and with high productivity using a simple device, and that can reduce noise and vibration. That purpose.

[Means for solving problems]

A laser processing apparatus according to the present invention is a laser processing apparatus that processes a workpiece by scanning and irradiating a workpiece supported on a support stand with laser light two-dimensionally. includes an optical means for intensively irradiating the workpiece with laser light outputted from a laser light source, and this optical means also includes a beam expanding means for expanding the beam of the laser light, and a condensing means for concentrating the expanded laser light. A condensing lens means for emitting light, a dividing means for dividing the output laser beam of the condensing lens means into a plurality of parts, and a plurality of reflecting means for reflecting the divided laser beams and respectively irradiating the workpiece. and each reflecting means is provided with means for swinging about the first and second axes, respectively.

[Function] This invention is provided with a reflecting means (which can be composed of a reflecting mirror) that reflects each of the laser beams divided into a plurality of parts by the dividing means which can be composed of a transparent mirror or the like, toward the workpiece. By swinging each of the reflecting means about the first and second axes, the two laser beams each draw a predetermined pattern on the workpiece.

Moreover, in this case, the laser beam from the laser light source is once expanded by the beam expanding means and then made incident on the condensing lens means to be refocused, so the focal length of the condensing lens means is determined by design. By choosing a long distance between the reflectors and the workpiece, even if the spot diameter on the workpiece is sufficiently narrowed down, the distance between each reflecting means and the workpiece can be kept large, and this also reduces the oscillation of each reflecting means. This means that the degree of movement can be kept to a small level, making it possible to perform high-speed machining while maintaining high precision.

[Example] FIG. 1 shows an example of a laser processing device configured according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of this device as seen from the front. . In FIGS. 1 and 2, a spreading device 104 for the dough 100 is disposed to the left of a slat conveyor 102, which is a support base on which the dough 100 to be processed is supported. A raw fabric roll 106 on which a fabric 100 is wound is set in this fabric spreading device 104, and the fabric 100 wound around this fabric roll 106 is transferred onto a slat conveyor 102 by the fabric spreading device 104. It is starting to be sent out. A scrap processing device 108 is disposed to the right of the slat conveyor 102, and is adapted to receive the remaining scraps after processing is completed.

A substantially U-shaped frame 110 is disposed at an appropriate position near the center of the slat conveyor 102, and furthermore, laser heads 112, 212 are fixed approximately at the center of the horizontal portion of the frame 110. The laser head 112, 212 has a first mirror drive unit 114, 21 configured in a gimbal shape, for example.
4, second mirror drive sections 116 and 216, and a condensing means 118, respectively. Laser head 1
An example of a 12,212 optical system is shown in FIG. As shown in this figure, the beam diameter of the laser beam is expanded through a beam expanding means consisting of a convex mirror 120 and a concave mirror 122 as shown by the dashed line in the figure, and then enters a lens 124, which is a focusing means 118, and then is partially reflected by the half mirror 125 and reflected by the mirror 126, and the fabric 1
On the other hand, a portion of the light that has passed through the half mirror 125 is reflected by the mirror 226 and is incident on the cloth 100.

The first mirror drive unit 114 has a mirror 126 as its axis.
It is driven to swing around PX1 as indicated by arrow FA in FIG. 2 or arrow FB1 in FIG. 3, and this axis PX1 is parallel to the optical axis of lens 124 of condensing means 118. In addition, the first mirror drive section 214
is mirror 1 with mirror 226 as the center of axis PX2.
26, it is driven to swing as indicated by the arrow FB2 in FIG.
The optical axis of the lens 124 coincides with the optical axis of the lens 124.

The second mirror drive unit 116 has a mirror 126 as its axis.
It swings around PY1 as shown by arrow FC in FIG. 2 or arrow FD1 in FIG. 3. Further, the second mirror driving section 216 moves the mirror 226 along the axis PY.
Similarly to the mirror 126, the mirror 126 is driven to swing as shown by the arrow FD2 in FIG.

That is, the laser beam LA (see FIG. 1) is focused by a convex mirror 120, a concave mirror 122, and a lens 124 so that it is focused on the fabric 100, and is divided by a half mirror 125, one of which is focused on the first The fabric 1 is moved by the mirror drive unit 114.
00 in the assumed coordinate X direction, and the second
The mirror driving unit 116 scans the fabric 100 in the assumed coordinate Y direction. The other laser beam divided by the half mirror 125 is also scanned by the laser head 212 in the same manner as described above. Note that 127 is a shutter, and by blocking the laser beam with this shutter 127, only the laser head 121 can be scanned.

Note that the beam expanding means consisting of the convex mirror 120 and the concave mirror 122 expands the laser beam on the fabric 100.
This is to reduce the spot diameter d of the LB. That is, the spot diameter d is expressed as follows, where f is the focal length of the lens 124, is the beam diameter D of the laser beam incident on the lens 124, and is a constant k. Therefore, even when the focal length f is set to a large value, if the spot diameter d is to be kept constant, the beam diameter D must also be increased in proportion to the focal length f. In the present invention, the lens 12
By increasing the focal length f of 4 and using a long focus condensing means or a long focus convex lens, the degree of swing of the mirrors 126, 216 can be reduced by increasing the distance between the laser heads 112, 212 and the fabric 100. Therefore, such a beam expanding means is used.

Next, a laser oscillator 128 is arranged near the slat conveyor 102 or the spreading device 104, and furthermore, a laser oscillator 128 is disposed near the slat conveyor 102 or the spreading device 104.
Optical means 130 consisting of a mirror or the like is arranged and fixed at 0A. Between the laser oscillator 128 and the optical means 130, transmission bodies 132, 134 and the optical means 130 transmit the laser light output from the laser oscillator 128 to the laser heads 112, 21.
2 is constructed.

Next, a part of the slat conveyor 102 is curved in an arc shape, so that the processing curved portion 10
2A is formed. This processed curve 102A
is configured to be a part of the circumference of a radius r centered around the rotation center of the axis PX1 of the mirror 126 (see FIG. 2). Therefore, the mirror 126 is moved by the first mirror drive unit 114 When the laser beam LA is scanned in the coordinate axis X direction by rotating about the axis PX1, the optical distance between the mirror 126 and the fabric 100 does not change, so there is no risk of the focus being shifted. Second mirror drive section 21
The same applies to 4.

Next, the overall operation in the above embodiment will be explained. First, the fabric 100 is transferred from the original fabric roll 106 to the slat conveyor 1 by the fabric spreading device 104.
02. On the other hand, the laser light reaches the laser head 112 from the laser oscillator 128 via the aforementioned transmission means. The laser beam passes through the aforementioned beam expanding means 120 and lens 124, is partially reflected by a half mirror 125, and is reflected by a mirror 126 so as to be focused on the fabric 100. The laser beam that has passed through the half mirror 125 reaches the laser head 212 and is reflected by the mirror 226 so as to be focused on the fabric 100.

At this time, the first and second mirror drive sections 11
4,116 causes mirror 126 to move along axes PX1, PY
1, the laser beam LA is scanned over the fabric 100 according to a required cutting pattern (see FIG. 1). Similarly, the laser beam LB is scanned on the fabric 100 by the first and second mirror drive units 214 and 216 so as to draw a predetermined pattern.

Through the above operations, the fabric 100 is cut with two target patterns formed at the same time.
00 is conveyed by a slat conveyor 102 in the direction of a scrap processor 108. The cut fabrics 100A and 100B are collected from the slat conveyor 102 by an operator, and the scraps are stored in a scrap processing device.

In the above embodiment, the laser beam LA is scanned in the orthogonal coordinate axes X and Y directions by the first and second mirror drive units 114 and 116, but it is also possible to scan the laser beam LA in a planar or two-dimensional manner. If possible, it is enough. The same applies to the laser beam LB.

Further, in the above embodiment, the fabric 100 is curved in the direction of the coordinate axis X, but it may be curved in the Y direction.

Furthermore, the object to be processed may be fabric, leather, etc., as well as metal, plastic, etc., but it goes without saying that in the above embodiments, flexible objects are preferred. If the conveyor does not have such properties, the slat conveyor 102 will be constructed flat as shown in FIG. Furthermore, when the workpiece has a relatively small area, it is placed directly on the slat conveyor 102.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the laser processing apparatus according to the present invention, a plurality of mirrors are provided as optical means for irradiating a workpiece with laser light divided into a plurality of parts by a transparent mirror, and these mirrors are Since the laser beam is scanned while being controlled to draw a predetermined pattern around the first and second axes, it is easy to cross or approach the laser beams, resulting in high-speed and highly productive processing. This has the effect of reducing noise and vibration. Furthermore, since one laser beam is divided into a plurality of beams and used, one laser oscillator and one lens are required, and therefore equipment costs can be reduced.

Further, since the laser beam is first expanded by the beam expanding means and then made incident on the condensing lens means, it is possible to use a long focus lens as the condensing lens means. Therefore, even if the spot diameter on the workpiece is narrowed down sufficiently, the distance between each reflecting means and the workpiece can be kept large, and in the end, it is possible to keep the degree of vibration of each reflecting means small. can. This also greatly contributes to the above-mentioned high precision and high speed machinability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a simplified front view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of a laser head, The figure is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional laser processing device. In the figure, 100 is a fabric, 102 is a slat conveyor, 112 and 212 are laser heads, and 11
4, 116, 214, 216 are mirror drive units, 1
18 is a condensing means, 120 is a convex mirror, 122 is a concave mirror, 124 is a lens, 125 is a half mirror,
126, 226 are mirrors, 128 is a laser oscillator, 102A is a curved portion, PX1, PX2, PY1,
PY2 is the axis, and LA and LB are the laser beams. In addition,
In each figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A laser processing device that processes a workpiece by scanning and irradiating a workpiece supported on a support stand two-dimensionally with a laser beam; It includes an optical means for intensively irradiating the workpiece with the laser light output from the light source; the optical means includes a beam expanding means for expanding the laser light beam, and a beam expanding means for condensing the expanded laser light. comprising a condensing lens means, a dividing means for dividing the output laser beam of the condensing lens means into a plurality of parts, and a plurality of reflecting means for reflecting the divided laser beams and respectively irradiating the workpiece; Each reflecting means has a first and a second reflecting means, respectively.
A laser processing device characterized by comprising: a swinging means about an axis; 2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the reflecting means has one of the first or second axes parallel to the optical axis of the condensing means. 3. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the support base has a curved portion forming an arc with respect to the center of the first or second axis. .