JPH03174990A - Laser processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To cut off a material having the thickness which can not be cut off hitherto by providing working heads respectively on respective sides of the material in the thickness direction and cutting the material with two working heads provided on both sides. CONSTITUTION:When the working heads 1, 2 are provided respectively on both sides of the material 3 in the thickness direction, the material 3 is irradiated by laser beams 1a, 2a having about twice laser beam output. Since the material is irradiated by the laser beam on both sides of the material in the thickness direction through two working heads 1, 2, distances between the respective working heads and the material plate can be kept about 1mm. Thus, the material having the thickness larger than the largest thickness which can be cut off with a traditional laser processing device can be cut off with a traditional laser beam oscillator.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a laser processing device for processing metal materials, etc. using a laser beam, and particularly relates to a laser processing device for cutting metal materials, etc. of a predetermined thickness. .

[Conventional technology]

Currently, the main field of application of carbon dioxide laser processing equipment is cutting and welding of metal materials.

When it comes to cutting metal materials, the laser output is 2kW.
The maximum plate thickness that can be cut is typical SS
It is approximately 20mm in length. Therefore, the current situation is to use plasma cutting when cutting materials with a thickness greater than this.

However, it has been pointed out that when plasma cutting is used, relatively thick debris called a process-affected layer, which is hard and fragile, is formed near the cut surface, making post-processing difficult. .

On the other hand, in the case of laser cutting, the width of processed debris near the cutting surface is very narrow, making post-processing easy, but as mentioned above, there is a limit to the maximum thickness that can be cut, so It is desired that a carbon dioxide gas laser processing device capable of cutting thick plate materials be developed.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In order to cut thicker materials, higher power carbon dioxide laser oscillators must be developed. However, unlike welding, cutting requires a low-order mode laser beam with excellent light focusing ability in order to cut thick materials. There is a problem in that the energy density irradiated to the optical components inside increases, and the beam quality deteriorates due to distortion of the optical components. Therefore, it is difficult to cut thick materials simply by increasing the output of the carbon dioxide laser oscillator to make it suitable for cutting.

Cutting of metal materials and the like using a laser is performed by irradiating the surface of the material with a laser beam focused to several hundred micrometers and an assist gas (mainly 02 gas) at the same time. At this time, the role of the assist gas is to promote the melting of the metal due to combustion heat and to forcibly remove the molten metal. Therefore, the distance between the processing head and the metal material plate (workpiece) usually needs to be maintained at about 1 mm.

In other words, the cutting process is not performed only by the power of the laser beam, the laser beam itself also has a spot diameter that increases from the focal point and the power density decreases, and the assist gas also depends on the sheet thickness. Due to a combination of effects such as a decrease in the blowing force in the depth direction as the value increases, the thickness of the metal material that can be cut with a laser beam of a constant output is limited. In that sense, as long as conventional carbon dioxide laser processing equipment is used and conventional processing methods are followed, S
It is difficult to cut S material.

As mentioned above, although the method of cutting metal materials using carbon dioxide gas laser processing equipment has excellent cutting characteristics with less processing deterioration, conventional carbon dioxide gas laser processing equipment can cut SS materials of 20 mm or more. It is extremely difficult to cut a plate of about 30 mm in thickness, and it is almost impossible to cut a plate with a thickness of about 30 mm.

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 cut a material having a thickness greater than the maximum thickness that can be cut by conventional laser processing devices.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a laser processing apparatus that cuts a material of a predetermined thickness by irradiating a laser beam from a processing head. There is provided a laser processing apparatus characterized in that the material is cut by two processing heads provided on both sides in the thickness direction of the plate, and two processing heads provided on both sides.

[Effect]

By providing the processing heads on both sides of the material in the thickness direction, the material is irradiated with a laser beam l with approximately twice the laser output. Further, since the laser beam is irradiated by two processing heads from both sides in the thickness direction of the material, the distance between each processing head and the material plate can be maintained at approximately 1 mm. by this,
It is possible to cut materials with a thickness that was previously considered impossible.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a state in which a material having a predetermined thickness is cut with a processing head by the laser processing apparatus of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the thickness of the plate that can be cut by one processing radius of the laser processing apparatus is assumed to be d. Processing head 1 and 2
are provided close to both sides of the material 3 in the thickness direction, and these two machining heads 1 and 2 are used to process the material 3.
Cut and process.

The laser beams la and 2a emitted from the processing heads 1 and 2 travel on a plane determined by the material traveling direction 3a and the plate thickness direction 3b, that is, on the paper plane of FIG. The processing head 1 is provided so that the laser beam 1a advances in the same direction as the thickness direction 3b of the material, that is, in a direction perpendicular to the advancing direction 3a, and the processing head 2 is provided with the laser beam 1a.
is provided so as to advance in a direction at a predetermined angle θ with respect to the traveling direction 3a of the material 3.

Further, the laser beam 1a of the processing head 1 is connected to the processing head 2.
The processing head 2 is fixed at a position shifted by a predetermined distance in the material direction 3a so as not to irradiate the object.

Next, the cutting operation according to this embodiment will be explained.

A laser beam emitted from the laser resonator is guided to the processing head 2. At the same time, the material 3 is moved in the advancing direction 3a. Then, the laser beam 2a emitted from the processing head 2 is directed to point a while maintaining a predetermined angle θ.

It moves relatively from to point a. As a result, the processing blade 2 moves to point a. , point a, and point C8 are cut.

At this point, processing head 1 is on point b1, so
Rad 1 is turned on for processing. The material 3 is moved in a direction opposite to the direction of movement 3a so that it is located above the moving direction 3a.

Rad 1 is turned on for processing. When the upper position is reached, the laser beam is guided to the processing head 1 and at the same time the material 3 is moved in the advancing direction 3a. Then, as with the processing head 2, the laser beam 1 emitted from the processing head 1
A points. It moves toward point b+, and RAD 1 points to processing.

, point S3, point el, and point C6 are cut.

Thereafter, this operation is repeated alternately in the order of point a, -point a2, point S, -point b2...'. As a result, the processing heads 1 and 2 are both cutting the material 3 whose thickness is less than the plate thickness d that can be cut by one processing head, which is assumed at the beginning, and the laser processing apparatus as a whole has a plate thickness of 4. Cut more material.

When a material is cut with such a laser processing device, it becomes possible to cut a material having a maximum thickness dwax.

This maximum plate thickness dmaM can be calculated by simple geometric calculation, d
saw” d (1+S l nθ)−x, tan
becomes θ. In the above equation, d is the thickness of the plate that can be cut with one processing head, XO is the amount of material fed per time, and 0 is the direction in which the laser beam 2a of the processing head 2 moves toward the material t)3.
It is the angle made with respect to a.

For example, if cutting is performed with d = 20 mm, θ = π/4, xo = 4 mm, the maximum plate thickness d, ... = 3Q, 1 mm
This means that materials with a thickness of 30 mm or more can be cut using conventional laser beam output.

Of course, θ and X. By appropriately selecting the plate thickness d=20mm that can be cut with one processing head, that is, plate A4
It is also possible to cut materials close to 0 mm. However, when the plate thickness is increased in this way, the amount of material fed per cycle is x because the laser beams 18 are emitted alternately from the processing head. It is inevitable that the value of will become smaller and the machining speed will become slower.

A modification of the processing head shown in FIG. 1 will be described below.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, a laser beam emitted from one laser oscillator 4 is distributed alternately to the processing heads 1 and 2, thereby emitting a laser beam l from the processing head. Further, the laser beams 1, 1a and 2a emitted from the processing heads 1 and 2 are arranged so that they intersect perpendicularly, respectively.
Processing heads 1 and 2 are provided. That is, the laser beam 1a is parallel to the ground, the laser beam 1b 2
The processing heads 1 and 2 are provided so that a is perpendicular to the ground. Furthermore, material 3 is laser beam ■
They are installed on the processing table so as to be tilted by an angle π/4 with respect to the traveling directions of a and 2a, respectively, and to be movable in the traveling direction 3a.

The laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 4 is reflected by the total reflection mirror 5, guided to the processing head 2, and the laser beam 2
The material 3 is irradiated as a. In order to guide the laser beam to the Radar 1 for processing, the total reflection mirror 5 is movable in the direction of an arrow 5a. Therefore, when the cutting process in the processing head 2 is completed, the total reflection mirror 5 is moved to the position indicated by the dotted line 5b, and the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 4 is passed through the total reflection mirrors 6 and 7 to the processing head. Lead to 1.

Further, if the thickness of the plate that can be cut by the laser beam emitted from one processing head is dmm, and the thickness of the material 3 is Dmm, then the maximum plate thickness dwhax that can be cut by the laser processing apparatus of this embodiment is ,d,,X=2ds in (yr/
4) 'i1.41d.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. A laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator 4 is guided to a processing head 2 by a total reflection mirror 5. At the same time, move the material 3 in the traveling direction 3a by 2(2dsin(7r/4) -D) = 2
(1,41d -D) Move by mm. next,
At the same time, the total reflection mirror 5 is moved to the position indicated by the dotted line 5b, and the material 3 is moved 2 (1, 41d-D
) Move by mm. Then, the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 4 is reflected by total reflection mirrors 6 and 7.
At the same time, the material 3 is also moved by 2 (1,41d - D) mm in the direction of travel 3a.

Thereafter, similar operations are repeated alternately. In this case, the thickness d of the plate cut by the laser beams emitted from each processing head 1 and 2 is the thickness that can be cut by the laser beam emitted from one processing head, so such a method With this, it is possible to cut the material 3 having a thickness greater than the thickness d. In this embodiment, the material 3 is tilted at an angle of π/4 with respect to the traveling directions of the laser beams 1a and 2a, but the effects of the present invention can be sufficiently achieved with other angles. In addition, from the point of view of processing efficiency, it is desirable that the traveling direction of the material 3 and the traveling direction of either of the laser beams 1a and 2a be in the range of π/6<θ<π/3.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing still another embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the same components as in FIG. 2 are given the same reference numerals, and therefore their explanations will be omitted. In this example, the material 3 is arranged so as to be movable perpendicularly to the ground, and the laser beams 1a and 2a are set at a predetermined angle θ (π/6<0< π/2). Therefore, the material 3 moves in a direction perpendicular to the ground, and the laser beams 1a and 2a emitted from the processing heads 1 and 2 also move toward the ground. This prevents the laser beam 1a from traveling parallel to the ground as shown in FIG. 2, so safety measures can be easily taken.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing still another embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiments shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, one laser oscillator was provided and its laser beam was alternately guided to two processing heads, but in this embodiment, the laser oscillator is used for processing. Two processing heads were provided in the same way as the processing heads, and a laser beam was supplied to each processing head independently.

The laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 4a is guided to the rad 1 for processing via the total reflection mirrors 6 and 8, and the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 4b is guided through the total reflection mirrors 5 and 9.
is guided to the processing head 2 via.

By providing two laser oscillators in this manner, there is no need to move the total reflection mirror 5 or move the material in the opposite direction as described above.

Also, - the amount of material fed per time x. There is no need to consider the value of , and the maximum thickness of the plate that can be cut can be determined by appropriately adjusting the angle formed by the laser beams emitted from the two processing heads.

Furthermore, when rads 1 and 2 are arranged as shown in FIG. Since the thickness of the plate that can be cut by the emitted laser beam l can be approximately d/2, the laser output of the laser oscillator 4b that supplies the laser beam to the processing head 2 is used as the laser beam that supplies the laser beam to the processing head 1. Oscillator 4a
can be made smaller than.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to use a laser oscillator used in a conventional laser processing device to cut a material having a thickness greater than the maximum thickness that can be cut by a conventional laser processing device. can.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a state in which a material of a predetermined thickness is cut with a processing head by the laser processing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing still another embodiment of this embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing still another embodiment of the present invention. 1.2 1a, 2a a b 4.4a, 4b 5.6.7.8, Laser beam material for processing Material direction of movement Laser oscillator total reflection mirror in plate thickness direction

Claims (8)

[Claims] (1) In a laser processing device that cuts a material of a predetermined thickness by irradiating a laser beam from a processing head, the processing head is provided on both sides of the material in the thickness direction, and two A laser processing apparatus characterized in that the material is cut using two processing heads. (2) One of the processing heads is provided to emit the laser beam perpendicularly to the direction of movement of the material, and the other of the processing heads is provided to emit the laser beam at a predetermined angle with respect to the direction of movement of the material. 2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser processing apparatus is provided to emit a beam. (3) The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing head irradiates the material with a laser beam on a plane determined by the traveling direction of the material and the plate thickness direction. (4) A laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that a laser beam output from one laser oscillator is alternately distributed to the processing head and the laser beam is emitted from the processing head. . (5) The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser beam is supplied to the two processing heads from two laser oscillators provided separately. (6) The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing head is provided so that the respective laser beams intersect perpendicularly. (7) Claim 6, characterized in that the angle θ between the traveling direction of the material and the traveling direction of any of the laser beams is in the range of π/6<θ<π/3. The laser processing device described. (8) The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser beam is a carbon dioxide laser beam.