JPH091373A - Laser beam machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a laser beam machine capable of improving working environment and the quality of products by providing an irradiating optical system on both ends of a discharge tube stored inside a chamber with an inactive gas sealed in. CONSTITUTION: An laser output is set on a prescribed level by the command from a control panel of a laser generator; simultaneously, motors 9A, 9B, 9C are driven by a jig controller; and brackets 13, 18 are moved to the right while rotating a glass tube 16 and lead wires 24A, 24B. Total reflection mirrors 4A, 4B and converging units 14A, 14B with a converging lens stored are moved by a moving mechanism incorporated in a bisecting spectral unit 8, with both ends of the glass tube 16 irradiated with a laser beam 1e, 1g and sealed. Thus, the sealed part can be finished with a satisfactory appearance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art By making electronic parts smaller and denser,
Personal computers and word processors are becoming smaller and lighter in the future, and along with this trend, the liquid crystal screens incorporated in these devices are also becoming smaller, and the fluorescent lamps behind the screens are also smaller in diameter. The number of fluorescent lamps having an outer diameter of about 2 mm to 4 mm is increasing. A gas burner has been conventionally used as a heat source for melting and sealing both ends of the fluorescent lamp.

[0003]

However, the work of sealing the fluorescent lamp by the gas burner is particularly inferior in the recent fluorescent lamp having a small diameter. That is, since the heating method using the gas burner cannot locally heat the electrodes, the electrode portions inserted inside the both ends may be heated.

Further, not only the fluorescent lamp having a small diameter, but impurities (for example, water) mixed in the flame of the gas burner may enter the inside of the tube, so that one side is sealed and then the other side is sealed off. Is a two-step process.

Further, in the sealing method using the gas burner, since the length of the sealing portion becomes long, not only the glass tube is wasted, but also a step of cutting off the end portion is required. Further, since the sealing work in the midsummer is a high-temperature work environment, deterioration of work conditions causes a variation in quality. Then, the objective of this invention is to obtain the laser processing apparatus which can raise work environment and the quality of a product.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser processing apparatus in which a chamber in which an inert gas is sealed and a laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator provided above the chamber are provided. An optical system for irradiating both ends of the discharge tube housed in the chamber through a condenser lens is provided.

The laser processing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the optical system is a bispectral unit provided at the upper end of the chamber and provided with a condenser lens at the lower end.

Further, the laser processing apparatus of the invention described in claim 3 is characterized in that the condensing lens is a truncated cone mirror in which the end portion of the discharge tube inside the chamber is loosely fitted.

Further, in the laser processing apparatus according to the present invention as defined in claim 4, the discharge tube is straight, and a discharge tube rotating mechanism for holding the middle portion of the discharge tube and rotating the discharge tube is provided. To do.

Further, the laser processing apparatus according to the invention of claim 5 is characterized in that a lead wire rotating mechanism for gripping and rotating the end portions of the lead wires connected to the electrodes at both ends of the discharge tube is provided. .

A sixth aspect of the present invention is a laser processing apparatus, characterized in that a moving mechanism for moving the discharge tube rotating mechanism and the lead wire rotating mechanism in the axial direction of the discharge tube is provided.

The laser processing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the condenser lens is movable in the axial direction of the discharge tube.

Furthermore, the laser processing apparatus of the invention described in claim 8 is characterized in that the discharge tube is a fluorescent lamp.

[0014]

According to the invention described in any one of claims 1 to 5 and claim 8, the both ends of the discharge tube are sealed by suppressing the invasion of impurities into the interior of the discharge tube by the laser light focused and irradiated on the both ends of the discharge tube. To be done.

Further, in the invention according to claim 6 or 7, it is possible to perform pretreatment of wells inserted at both ends of the discharge tube and sealing of the discharge tube by a laser beam moving in the axial direction. Become.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a laser processing apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an opening 6a is formed on the left side and an opening 6b having a small diameter is formed on the right side at the upper end of an airtight chamber 6.

Of these, on the lower surface of the left opening 6a,
A disk-shaped transparent window plate 7A made of zinc selenium material is hermetically attached via a frame and a packing (not shown).

Similarly, a transmission window plate 7B having a diameter smaller than that of the transmission window plate 7A is also airtightly attached to the lower surface of the opening 6b on the right side through a frame and a packing (not shown). A pneumatic joint 30 </ b> A for supplying argon gas to the inside of the chamber 6 is provided through the lower part of the right side plate of the chamber 6. Similarly, in the lower part of the left side plate of the chamber 6, a pneumatic joint 30B for exhausting the internal air when the argon gas is replaced is symmetrically provided.

At the bottom of the chamber 6, a positioning mechanism 12 to be described below is provided on the upper surface of the mounting frame 11 not shown in detail, and the positioning mechanism 12 allows the L-shaped brackets 13, 18, and 21 to move as shown in FIG. In No. 1, it is movable left and right.

That is, the positioning mechanism 12 is provided with three ball screws and guide rods (not shown) on the left side, the central portion, and the right side in a row parallel to the plane of the drawing. These ball screws pass through the lower portions of the brackets 13, 18, 21 and the guide rods pass through the lower portions of the brackets 13, 18, 21.

Of these, a drive roller 15 having a hard rubber inserted in the outer periphery is provided on the left side of the bracket 13 erected on the right side of the center, and the shaft portion at the right end of the drive roller 15 has a bracket 13 It penetrates to the right side of the bracket 13 via a pair of bearings (not shown) press-fitted into the bracket. The right end of the shaft portion is connected to an output shaft of a motor 9B mounted on the upper right side surface of the bracket 13 via a reduction mechanism (not shown).

The bracket 13 has a through hole penetrating left and right.
A pair of support rollers 17 are provided on the left side of the bracket 13 on the left side of the bracket 13 with respect to the lower side of the drive roller 15 described above, and the right end of the support roller 17 is inserted into the bracket 13 and is not shown. It is supported by bearings. The pair of support rollers 17 and the drive roller 15 are not shown in the vertical sectional view.
A glass tube 16, which will be described in detail in an enlarged view of FIG. 2, is held between the upper and lower support rollers 15 and 17 which are arranged at intervals of 120 degrees.

On the right side of the upper part of the left bracket 18,
The chuck 10A, which is not shown in detail, is attached on the center line of the through hole 13a formed in the bracket 13, and the motor 9A is attached to the left side surface of the upper portion of the bracket 18.
A chuck 10A is connected to the output shaft of the motor 9A, and the chuck 9A can be opened and closed by driving the motor 9A.

A chuck 10B, which is the same as the chuck 10A mounted on the left bracket 18, is also symmetrically mounted on the left side surface of the upper portion of the bracket 21 which is erected on the right side, on the center line of the through hole 13a. .

Similarly, a motor 9C, which is the same as the motor 9A mounted on the left bracket 18, is symmetrically mounted on the right side surface of the upper portion of the bracket 21, and the output shaft of this motor 9C is attached to the chuck 10B. It is connected. On the upper part of the chamber 6, a bispectral unit 8 shown by a chain line and described below is mounted.

That is, in this bi-splitting unit 8, a light collecting unit 14A indicated by a chain line is provided above the left transmission window plate 7A so as to be movable left and right by a moving mechanism (not shown).

Similarly, above the right transmission window plate 7B,
A light collecting unit 14B indicated by a chain line is provided so as to be movable left and right by a moving mechanism (not shown). Of these, the left condensing unit 14A houses the condensing lens 5A in the lower part, and the total reflection mirror 4A 45 is above the condensing lens 5A.
It is stored at an angle of degrees.

Similarly, a condenser lens 5B which is the same as the condenser lens 5A is symmetrically housed in the condenser unit 14B on the right side, and the condenser lens 4A is arranged above the condenser lens 5B.
The same condensing lens 4B is stored at an angle of 45 degrees.

Further, a transmissive window plate (not shown) is provided at the center of the upper end of the bispectral unit 8, and a semi-transmissive mirror 2 is provided below the transmissive window plate at an angle of 45 degrees. A total reflection mirror 3 is provided below 2 at an angle of 45 degrees, which is opposite to that of the semi-transmission mirror 2.

A laser transmission line connected to the emission side of a carbon dioxide gas laser oscillator (not shown) is connected to the upper surface of a transmission window plate (not shown) provided at the center of the upper end of the bispectral unit 8.

In the laser processing apparatus thus constructed, when both ends of the glass tube 16 shown in FIG. 2 are sealed with laser light, as shown in FIG. 3, the electrodes 26A, 26B, the wells 27A, 27B and the lead wires are connected. After sandwiching the glass tube 16 into which 24A and 24B are inserted from both sides by the upper and lower support rollers 15 and 17, the brackets 13 and 18 are moved to the left side in FIG. 1, and as shown in FIG. Wells 27A,
27B is projected from both sides of the glass tube 16.

At this time, the outer end surfaces of the left and right electrodes 26A and 26B are set to be inside 2 mm to 3 mm from the end surface of the glass tube 16 and the lead wires 24A and 24B are chucked.
Hold with A and 10B. Next, the left and right focusing units 14A,
Adjust the position of 14B to adjust the optical axis of the laser beam to each wells 27
Match A and 27B.

Next, argon gas is injected from the pneumatic joint 30A, and the air inside is exhausted from the pneumatic joint 30B to replace the inside of the chamber 6 with the argon gas. The motors 9A, 9B, 9C are connected to the glass tube 16 by a motor control device not shown.
Set the peripheral speed of to be around 1 m / min and drive.

A laser beam 1 is emitted according to a command from a laser oscillator control board (not shown) to heat the outer circumference of the wells 27A, 27B. The laser output at this time is Wells 27A,
Depending on the time of irradiating 27B with the laser beam, 200 to 400
The laser light 1e and 1g shown in FIG.
The suitability condition is in the range of 200 watts. Also, Wells 27
The beam diameters of the laser lights 1e and 1g for irradiating A and 27B are
It is set to be 4 to 5 mm, and the preheating time is set to 3 to 5 seconds.

Thus, the rotating wells 27A,
When the preheating of 27B is completed and the temperature rises to an appropriate temperature, the laser output is set to 80 to 120 watts by the command of the laser oscillator control board (not shown), and at the same time, the motors 9A, 9B are set by the jig control device (not shown). , 9C,
The brackets 13 and 18 are moved to the right while rotating the glass tube 16 and the lead wires 24A and 24B.

As shown in FIG. 3, the amount of movement is set so that the ends of the wells 27A and 27B and the end of the glass tube 16 coincide with each other. By the above preheating operation, Wells 27
It is possible to prevent air bubbles and impurities generated from A and 27B from being mixed, and it is possible to obtain a high-quality sealed portion without defects.

Next, while maintaining the laser output at 80 to 120 watts on the spot and after a lapse of 2 to 4 seconds, the distance between the laser beams 1e and 1g was set to 2 to 3 by the moving mechanism incorporated in the bispectral unit 8. Each total reflection mirror 4A, 4B to be narrower by a millimeter
And a condensing unit 14A containing the condensing lenses 7A and 7B,
14B is moved, and laser light 1e, 1g is applied to both ends of the glass tube 16.
Irradiate and seal. By this operation, it is possible to obtain a good finished appearance of the sealed portion.

Therefore, in the laser processing apparatus configured as described above, heating can be locally controlled using laser light as a heat source, so that the diameter is small and the thickness is thin (0.1 mm to 0.1 mm.
5mm) The cold cathode fluorescent lamp can be sealed off at the same time at both ends in a chamber sealed with argon gas, so one end is sealed with the sealing machine in the first step as before, and then the second step is sealed. Since it is not necessary to take the step of filling the gas from the other end with the machine and sealing it, there is no need for a separate glass tube for filling the gas, so not only can the material yield be improved, but there is less variation in quality. The process can be shortened. Further, since it is possible to prevent the fumes from scattering and the rise in room temperature due to the gas burner flame, it is possible to provide a laser processing apparatus that can improve the working environment.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged detailed view showing a second embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 4, when the condenser lens 5B is moved to the right side position like the condenser lens 5B1 indicated by the broken line, the irradiation position of the laser beam 1g can be moved to the position of the wells 27B and preheating can be performed. it can.

Further, when the condenser lens 5B is moved to the left side position like the condenser lens 5B2 shown by the broken line, it is possible to replace the movement of the condenser units 14A and 14B required for the sealing process. can get. Thus, instead of moving the positions of the light collecting units 14A and 14B, the light collecting lens 5
Only the A and 5B may be moved to simplify the configuration of the bispectral unit 8.

Next, FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged detailed view showing a third embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 5, the laser beam 1 is rotated 90 ° to the left by the total reflection mirror 4C.
It is refracted and becomes laser light 1h. This laser light 1h is reflected by the inclined surface of the conical mirror 32, becomes a semi-circular laser light 1i, is reflected in the outer peripheral direction, and is reflected leftward by the inner peripheral surface of the truncated cone mirror 33 to be laser light 1j. Become.

This laser beam 1j is reflected by the inner peripheral surface of the truncated cone mirror 34 and is applied to the outer peripheral surface at the right end of the glass tube 16. In a laser processing apparatus having such an optical system on both sides of the glass tube 16, the glass tube 16 and the lead wire 25
Since the cold cathode lamp can be sealed without rotating, the motor and the drive roller are not required, and the configuration can be further simplified.

[0043]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
A chamber in which an inert gas is filled, and an optical system which is provided above the chamber and irradiates laser light emitted from a laser oscillator to both ends of a discharge tube housed inside the chamber through a condenser lens. Since the laser light focused on both ends of the discharge tube is used to prevent impurities from entering the interior of the discharge tube and seal the both ends, it is possible to improve the working environment and product quality. A laser processing device can be obtained.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the optical system is a bispectral unit provided at the upper end of the chamber and having a condenser lens at the lower end, so that the light is condensed at both ends of the discharge tube. Since both ends are sealed by suppressing the intrusion of impurities into the interior of the discharge tube by the applied laser light, it is possible to obtain a laser processing apparatus capable of improving the working environment and the quality of the product.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the condensing lens is a truncated cone mirror in which the end of the discharge tube inside the chamber is loosely fitted, so that the light is condensed at both ends of the discharge tube. Since both ends are sealed by suppressing the intrusion of impurities into the interior of the discharge tube by the applied laser light, it is possible to obtain a laser processing apparatus capable of improving the working environment and the quality of the product.

Further, according to the invention as set forth in claim 4, both ends of the discharge tube are provided by making the discharge tube straight and providing a discharge tube rotating mechanism for holding the intermediate portion of the discharge tube and rotating the discharge tube. Since both ends are sealed by suppressing the invasion of impurities into the inside of the discharge tube by the laser light focused and irradiated on the laser tube, it is possible to obtain the laser processing apparatus capable of improving the working environment and the quality of the product.

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, by providing a lead wire rotating mechanism for gripping and rotating the ends of the lead wires connected to the electrodes at both ends of the discharge tube, both ends of the discharge tube are provided. Since the both ends are sealed by suppressing the invasion of impurities into the inside of the discharge tube by the laser beam that is focused and irradiated, it is possible to obtain the laser processing apparatus that can improve the working environment and the quality of the product.

According to the sixth aspect of the invention, by providing the moving mechanism for moving the discharge tube rotating mechanism and the lead wire rotating mechanism in the axial direction of the discharge tube, the laser beam moving in the axial direction allows Since it is possible to pre-treat wells inserted into both ends of the discharge tube and seal the discharge tube, it is possible to obtain a laser processing apparatus capable of improving the working environment and the quality of the product.

According to the invention described in claim 7, by making the condenser lens movable in the axial direction of the discharge tube,
The laser beam moving in the axial direction enables the pretreatment of the wells inserted at both ends of the discharge tube and the sealing of the discharge tube, so that a laser processing device that can improve the working environment and product quality is obtained. be able to.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 8,
By making the discharge tube a fluorescent lamp, the laser light that is focused and irradiated on both ends of the fluorescent lamp prevents impurities from entering the inside of the fluorescent lamp and seals the both ends. It is possible to obtain a laser processing apparatus capable of improving quality.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing a first embodiment of a laser processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged exploded view showing the operation of the first embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged sectional view showing a first embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged sectional view showing the operation of the second embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged vertical sectional view showing a third embodiment of the laser processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 1
h, 1i, 1j ... laser light, 2 ... semi-transmissive mirror, 3, 4
A, 4B ... Total reflection mirror, 5A, 5B ... Condensing lens, 6
... chamber, 7A, 7B ... transmission window, 8 ... bispectral unit, 9A, 9B, 9C ... motor, 10A, 10B ... chuck, 11 ... mounting frame, 12 ... positioning mechanism, 13, 18, 21 ... bracket, 15, 17 ... Drive roller, 16 ... Glass tube, 24A, 24
B ... Lead wire, 26A, 26B ... Electrode, 27A, 27B ... Wells, 32, 33, 34 ... Frustum of cone.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A chamber in which an inert gas is sealed, and a discharge tube which is provided above the chamber and accommodates laser light emitted from a laser oscillator inside the chamber via a condenser lens. Laser processing equipment equipped with an optical system that irradiates both ends. 2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical system is a bispectral unit provided at the upper end of the chamber and having the condenser lens at the lower end. 3. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the condenser lens is a truncated cone mirror in which an end of the discharge tube inside the chamber is loosely fitted. 4. A discharge tube rotating mechanism for rotating the discharge tube by holding the discharge tube in a straight shape and holding an intermediate portion of the discharge tube. The laser processing apparatus described in. 5. A lead wire rotating mechanism for gripping and rotating an end portion of a lead wire connected to electrodes at both ends of the discharge tube is provided. The laser processing apparatus described in. 6. The laser according to claim 1, further comprising a moving mechanism that moves the discharge tube rotating mechanism and the lead wire rotating mechanism in an axial direction of the discharge tube. Processing equipment. 7. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the condenser lens is movable in an axial direction of the discharge tube. 8. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge tube is a fluorescent lamp.