JPH0924482A - Laser beam machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a mirror to change the face of a laser beam unnecessary to also make the labor to finely adjust the attaching angle unnecessary. SOLUTION: In a laser beam machine by irradiating an object to be machined with a laser beam introduced from a laser beam oscillator 60 to a laser head 30, relatively moving a holding body 16 to hold the object to be machined and the laser head 30 and machining the object, the laser beam emitted from the laser beam oscillator 60 is made to be introduced to the laser head with an optical fiber 50.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser beam machine for irradiating a workpiece with a laser beam to perform processing such as cutting and engraving.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to ensure safety, a cylindrical pipe is used to guide a laser beam output from a laser oscillator to a laser head which is arranged so as to irradiate a workpiece with a laser beam. , And a mirror is used to redirect the laser beam.

[0003]

The direction change of the laser beam is required to be precise, and for that purpose, the mounting angle of the mirror needs to be finely adjusted, which is very difficult and time-consuming. there were.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for a mirror for changing the direction of the laser beam and the labor for finely adjusting the mounting angle.

[0005]

The present invention is characterized in that a laser beam output from a laser oscillator is guided to a laser head by an optical fiber. As a result, the laser beam output from the laser oscillator is guided to the laser head without using a conduit or mirror,
It eliminates the need for fine adjustment of the mirror mounting angle.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The embodiments described below are examples in which the laser beam machine of the present invention is provided in each sewing machine head of a multi-head sewing machine. 1 is a front view of the sewing machine, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. As shown in these drawings, three sewing machine heads 20 are provided at equal intervals on the front surface of the support frame 12 located above the table 14 in the frame body 10. Further, on the upper surface of the table 14, a holder (embroidery frame) 16 capable of holding a workpiece (cloth or the like) can be moved and controlled in both X and Y directions of FIG. 2 based on predetermined movement data (embroidery data). It is provided.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of one sewing machine head 20 and its peripheral portion, and FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. As shown in these drawings, each sewing machine head 20 is
The sewing machine arm 22 fixed to the support frame 12 is provided with a needle bar case 24 slidably supported in the width direction (left and right direction in FIG. 3) of the front surface of the sewing machine arm 22. The sewing machine head 20 in this embodiment is a multi-needle (six needles) type, and each sewing needle 26 shown in FIG. 3 is of an individual needle bar (not shown) supported by a needle bar case 24 so as to be vertically movable. It is connected to the lower end. It is well known that one of these needle bars is selected by sliding the needle bar case 24 and only the selected needle bar is driven up and down together with the sewing needle 26.

A laser head 30 is attached to one side surface of the needle bar case 24 of each sewing machine head 20. This laser head 30 will be described later.
The optical axis of the laser beam emitted from the
Is offset from the sewing needle 26 at the right end by a distance that is an integer multiple (3 times in the drawing) (see FIG. 3), and is offset from the sewing needle 26 by a predetermined distance in front of the sewing machine. FIG. 5 shows the laser head 30 in a perspective view, and FIG. 6 also shows the laser head 30 in cross section. As is clear from these drawings, the laser head 30 includes a block 32, an upper cylinder 36 and a lower cylinder 37 that are vertically mounted to the block 32, and a vertically movable mount on the outer periphery of the lower cylinder 37. The protective cylinder 40 is provided.

The block 32 is attached to a bracket 34, which is attached to the side surface of the needle bar case 24 so that the inclination thereof can be adjusted forward and backward, so that the inclination of the block 32 can be adjusted to the left and right around the axis of the pin 33. After the adjustment of the block 32, the two lock bolts 33a shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are tightened to be held in the adjusted position. As shown in FIG. 6, the upper cylinder 36 is mounted so as to penetrate the block 32, and the lower end of the upper cylinder 36 is joined to the upper end of the lower cylinder 37 by screwing them into each other. The upper cylinder 36 is adjustable in vertical position with respect to the block 32. After this adjustment, the two lock bolts 35 and the lock nuts 35a shown in FIGS. . A first lens 38 for converging and focusing a laser beam is held inside the upper cylinder 36, and a second lens 39 is held inside the lower cylinder 37.

The upper end of the protective cylinder 40 is a plate-shaped support member 4 connected to a rod 45 of an air cylinder 44.
6 supported. Therefore, this protective cylinder 40
Can be moved up and down between the retracted position shown by the phantom line in FIG. 3 and the use position shown by the solid line by driving the air cylinder 44. As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, one end of an air tube 42 is connected to the side wall portion of the protection tube 40, and the protection tube 40 is connected to the protection tube 40 from an air supply source (not shown) through the air tube 42.
Air is blown into the inside of the. The protective cylinder 40 is formed of a transparent synthetic resin material or the like so that the laser beam emitted by the laser head 30 can be confirmed.

An air outlet pipe 48 is supported on the support member 46 on the front side of the protective cylinder 40. The air blowing pipe 48 is also connected to an air supply source (not shown) through the tube 49, and the lower end portion of the air blowing pipe 48 opens downwardly of the protective cylinder 40. Also, as shown in FIGS.
A plurality of suction holes 13a are formed on the front surface and the bottom surface of the duct 13 arranged on the lower surface of the duct 2 at positions corresponding to the laser head 30.
Reference numeral 3 communicates with the dust collector via a suction blower (not shown). As shown in FIG. 6, in the needle plate 28 on the table 14, just under the beam hole 41 formed in the lower surface portion (bottom surface portion) of the protective cylinder 40, separately from the needle hole 28a through which the sewing needle 26 passes. A through hole 28b for passing a laser beam is opened.

As is apparent from FIG. 6, a nipple 36a is provided at the upper end of the upper cylinder 36 of the laser head 30.
Are connected by screwing. This nipple 36
A connector 51 at one end of the optical fiber 50 is connected to a. The optical fiber 50 is fixed to the side surface of the needle bar case 24 by a clip 56 and guided upward, and is fixed to the upper surface of the support frame 12 by a clip 57 and guided rearward (see FIGS. 3 and 4). ). The optical fiber 50 has excellent flexibility (minimum bending radius: 2
cm) A silver halide polycrystalline fiber is used, and for gas lasers (CO ₂ lasers) it is possible to transfer energy up to 30 watts.

As shown in FIG. 2, a number (three) corresponding to each laser head 30 is provided at the rear position of the support frame 12.
The laser oscillators 60 are arranged in the front-rear direction. The laser oscillator 60 is of a type using a gas laser (CO ₂ laser) capable of continuously irradiating a laser beam. As is clear from FIG. 7 which is an enlarged view of the periphery of the laser oscillator 60, the individual support plates 66 on which the respective laser oscillators 60 are mounted are different from each other in the frame 6 fixed to the support frame 12.
4 and a frame 6 fixed to the rear end of the table 14.
It is horizontally supported by 5 and 5. A block 63 holding a guide tube 62 for a laser beam output from the laser oscillator 60 is supported on each of these support plates 66.

FIG. 8 shows an enlarged cross section of the guide tube 62. As is apparent from this drawing, the connector 52 at the other end of the optical fiber 50 has a guide tube 62.
Is connected to a nipple 62a screwed to the tip of the. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, semiconductor laser oscillators 68 for outputting visible light are provided on the upper surfaces of the respective support plates 66. Optical fiber 69 connected to the output port of these semiconductor laser oscillators 68
Are respectively connected to the optical fibers 50 of the individual laser oscillators 60. As a result, the colorless laser beam output from each laser oscillator 60 becomes visible light.

In the guide tube 62 of each laser oscillator 60,
Each of the laser beam blocking devices 70 shown in FIG. 9 is provided. The blocking device 70 is operated when a laser beam is output from the laser oscillator 60 regardless of a regular output signal, and a rotary solenoid 72 is attached to a bracket 73 fixed to the block 63. A shutter 74 is fixed to the output shaft of 72. By operating the shutter 74 from the solid line position in FIG. 9 to the virtual line position by the rotary solenoid 72, the shutter 7
The arcuate portion 4 enters the inside from the slit 76 of the guide tube 62 and can block the optical path in the guide tube 62.

In the laser beam machine having the above construction, when the main switch (not shown) of the sewing machine is turned on, the power of each laser oscillator 60 and the semiconductor laser oscillator 68 is turned on, and preheating of them is started. In parallel with this, the needle bar case 24 of the sewing machine head 20 is slid to select the laser head 30, and the air cylinder 44 of each laser head 30 is operated to operate the protection cylinder 4.
0 is lowered to the solid line in FIG. 3 or the use position shown in FIG. The control of each air cylinder 44 is performed by operating the elevating switch 82 of the control panel 80 provided on the side of the needle bar case 24 of each sewing machine head 20 as shown in FIG.

The colorless laser beam output from each laser oscillator 60 becomes visible light by the laser beam output from the semiconductor laser oscillator 68 and is transmitted through the optical fiber 50 to the laser head 30. Here, by simultaneously pressing the test switch 84 and the up switch 86 of the control panel 80, the test mode is set, and the laser beam of extremely low level is irradiated for a predetermined time. In this test mode, it is confirmed whether or not the laser beam passes through the center of the through hole 28b of the needle plate 28, and if the laser beam is deviated, tilt adjustment of the bracket 34 with respect to the needle bar case 24 in the front-rear direction or The block 3 for the bracket 34
It is corrected by adjusting the inclination in the left-right direction of 2.

Regarding the laser beam power adjustment,
After switching to the setting mode on the operation panel 18 of the sewing machine shown in FIG. 1, the power is gradually increased by continuously pressing the test switch 84 and the up switch 86 of the control panel 80 at the same time, and the test switch 84 and the down switch 88. Hold down and at the same time to gradually power down. Regarding the adjustment of the focus position of the laser beam, the vertical position of the upper cylinder 36 with respect to the block 32 is adjusted to adjust the focus positions of the lenses 38 and 39. Depending on the workpiece (cloth or the like), it may be better to use a lens having a different focal length. In that case, the laser head 30 itself is removed and replaced with another laser head having a lens having a different focal length. The power adjustment of the laser beam and the adjustment of the focusing position are performed every time the workpiece is replaced.

During laser processing, the workpiece (cloth or leather) is attached to the holder (embroidery frame) 16 shown in FIGS.
Is set, and the laser head 3 is controlled while the holder 16 is controlled to move in both the X and Y directions of FIG. 2 based on the embroidery data.
The laser beam is continuously irradiated from 0. As a result, the workpiece is subjected to laser processing such as cutting and engraving according to the data. During laser processing, the holder 16 is continuously moved at a constant speed while linearly interpolating movement control based on embroidery data. However, when the stitch length of the embroidery data is set to be somewhat small, laser processing is possible without necessarily performing linear interpolation or constant speed.

During the laser processing, the protective cylinder 4 is
The air is sent into the inside of 0 through the air tube 42, and the air is discharged from the beam hole 41 of the protective cylinder 40 to the processing location of the workpiece. As a result, the flame generated when the workpiece is burned by the laser beam is blown out, and the smoke produced at that time is blown by the air blown from the air blowing pipe 48 as shown in FIGS.
Is sent toward the duct 13 indicated by. Therefore, this smoke is sucked from the suction hole 13a of the duct 13 and sent to the dust collector, where it is subjected to deodorizing treatment.

The movement control of the holding body 16 may use dedicated data for laser processing instead of the embroidery data. If the laser processing is simple processing (for example, straight cutting), the holding body 16 will not move. Alternatively, the support frame 12 may be fixed and the movement of the support frame 12 may be controlled relative to the frame body 12. The laser head 30 may be directly attached to the support frame 12 instead of being attached to the needle bar case 24 of the sewing machine head 20. In this embodiment, the example in which the laser processing machine is provided in the embroidery sewing machine to enable the combination work of the embroidery sewing and the laser processing has been described. Is.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
It should be additionally noted that this embodiment includes the following various technical matters in addition to the technical matters described in the claims. 1. 2. The laser processing machine according to claim 1, wherein the optical fiber is a silver halide polycrystal fiber. As a result, the optical fiber has excellent flexibility, and the degree of freedom in arranging the laser oscillator and the laser head increases. 2. 2. The laser processing machine according to claim 1, wherein embroidery data of the sewing machine is used as data for relatively moving the holder of the workpiece and the laser head. As a result, laser processing can be performed using the embroidery data of the sewing machine as it is. 3. The laser processing machine according to claim 1, wherein a holder for the workpiece is moved with respect to the laser head. This allows the holding body of the sewing machine and its drive mechanism to be used for laser processing. 4. The laser processing machine according to claim 1, wherein the laser head is moved with respect to the holder of the workpiece.

[0023]

The mirror for guiding the laser beam output from the laser oscillator to the laser head is unnecessary, and the labor for finely adjusting the mounting angle is also unnecessary.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a sewing machine.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of one sewing machine head and its peripheral portion.

FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a laser head.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a laser head of the same.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view showing the periphery of a laser oscillator.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing a guide tube of a laser oscillator.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a laser beam blocking device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 16 holder 30 laser head 50 optical fiber 60 laser oscillator

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Processing is performed by irradiating a workpiece with a laser beam guided from a laser oscillator to a laser head, and moving a holding body holding the workpiece and the laser head relatively. A laser processing machine, wherein a laser beam output from the laser oscillator is guided to a laser head by an optical fiber.