JPS6242719B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device that uses a laser to cut chips generated when cutting metal using a lathe or the like.

If chips generated during boring or boring operations for metal cutting are generated continuously, they become entangled with the cutting tool, making normal cutting difficult. For this reason, in the simplest conventional chip disposal method, cutting is stopped and the operator removes the chips entangled in the cutting tool. However, this method makes unmanned operation impossible. For this reason, conventionally,
A method using a chip breaker was adopted, and the chip shape was machined to change the flow direction of the generated chips running on the rake surface of the chip at the tip of the cutting tool, and this force was used to bend the chips for cutting.
With this method, when thin and thin chips are generated, such as during finishing, the rigidity of the generated chips is lost, making cutting impossible. Another conventional method in such cases is to bring a vacuum nozzle close to the generated chips and suck them up. However, this method does not ensure chip suction. Also, in the case of boring, it is relatively easy to bring the suction port close to the bit tip, but in the case of boring, it is almost impossible. Another conventional method involves intermittent cutting by cutting a groove thinner than the cutting depth in advance on the workpiece to be cut. This method requires more steps to create grooves and is impossible in the case of boring.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that eliminates such conventional drawbacks and makes it possible to cut off chips that are an obstacle to automatic cutting using a laser, regardless of whether the process is boring or boring. .

In the laser chip cutting device of the present invention, a YAG laser beam is introduced to the bite shank through a fiber, and the laser beam is focused in the vicinity of the chip generation point by a condensing optical section attached to the bite shank to cut the chips. .

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a YAG laser device, 2 is a laser power cooler, and 3 is a fiber coupling device. Laser light is introduced into a processing fiber 4 by the fiber coupling device. The introduced laser beam is transmitted through a fiber 4 and introduced into a cutting tool shank 5 for boring and boring operations to which a laser focusing optical section is attached. An observation fiber 6 is connected to this bite shank, which is used to align the laser cutting point of generated chips with the laser convergence point of the laser beam sent from the processing fiber 4. That is, an enlarged image of the generated chips and the vicinity to be laser cut is formed on the image pickup tube surface of the television camera 8 by the observation fiber imaging optical section 7, and this image is displayed on the television monitor 9.

Figure 2 shows the bite shank 5 used in the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an external view of the bite shank 5. In the figure, 11 is a collimator lens 20,
Dichroic mirror 22 and condensing lens 23
A housing containing a laser focusing optical section consisting of 10
is the bottom of the bite shank processed to allow insertion of the end of the housing 11. Insert the housing 11 into the bottom 10 of the bite shank in the direction of arrow a in the figure, and insert the screws 12 and 13 through the holes 12a and 13a, respectively. and fix it to the screw holes 12b and 13b. Also, the housing 11
A housing section 26 housing a focusing lens 24 is attached to the housing, and an observation optical fiber 6 is fixed to this housing section at the imaging position of the lens 24. 14 is a conical nozzle made to cover the conical light beam emitted from the condenser lens 23;
The condensing lens 23 is fixed to the end face of the fixed cylindrical part 25. This nozzle is used to protect the laser beam from the cutting fluid so that the laser beam is not blocked by the liquid when cutting is performed by applying cutting fluid, and the machining laser beam is emitted from the nozzle tip 14a. In addition, in order to remove the cutting fluid, a hose is attached inside this nozzle and compressed air is sent in.
Although it is necessary to blow out from the tip 14a, if oxygen gas is used instead of this compressed air, the efficiency of cutting chips by laser will be improved. 15 is a chip holder, which is connected to each screw hole 15 by three screws 16.
It is fixed to the screw holes 16a, 16b, 16c of the bite shank bottom part 10 through the screw holes 16a, 15b, 15c. At this time, the cylindrical portion 25 of the housing is inserted into the through hole 30 of the chip holder. The cutting tip 17 for processing is attached to a wedge-shaped tip holding fitting 1.
By screwing 8 into the tip holder, force is applied upward in the drawing and the tip is attached to the tip holder 15. On the other hand, a fiber fixing jig 19 is attached to the output end of the processing fiber 4, and the fiber 4 is fixed by screwing this jig to the housing 11. The laser beam transmitted by the fiber 4 is expanded at a divergence angle determined by the numerical aperture of the fiber, and converted into parallel light by the collimator lens 20. This collimator lens moves in the optical axis direction centering on the position where the laser beam becomes parallel light, and is fixed at the stopped position. This is to move the laser beam condensing point 21 by the condensing lens 23 slightly in the optical axis direction and to focus the laser beam condensing point on the point where the generated chips are to be cut. The laser beam, which has been made almost parallel by the collimator lens 20, is bent by 90 degrees by the dichroic mirror 22 and enters the condensing lens 23, where it is focused at the laser beam condensing point 2.
It becomes 1. At this time, the optical axis of the laser beam is parallel to the scoop surface at the tip of the cutting tip 17. The dichroic mirror 22 is made to reflect 100% of the YAG laser light (wavelength: 1.06 μm) emitted from the YAG laser device 1, but to transmit 100% of visible light. Therefore, the image of the laser beam condensing point 21 is formed by the condensing lens 23 and the observation fiber focusing lens 2.
The image is projected onto the television monitor 9 shown in FIG. 1 via the observation optical fiber 6 at a magnification determined by 4.
On the other hand, a finely movable glass plate with a crosshair line printed on it is inserted into the imaging optical part 7 of the observation fiber, and the glass plate is arranged so that the laser beam condensing point 21 and this crosshair line coincide on the TV screen. has been slightly moved and adjusted. By adjusting in this way, the laser processing point will be placed on the crosshair line projected on the TV monitor screen, and the area where chips generated during processing with the cutting tip 17 should be cut will be located at this laser processing point. The cutting tip 17 may be attached so that the This is the cutting tip 1 for the tip holder 15.
By adjusting the lateral position of 7, the tip spacer 3
This can be achieved by adjusting the position in the vertical direction by changing the thickness of 5. In the bit shank shown in FIG. 3, the laser irradiation direction is approximately parallel to the rake surface at the tip of the cutting tip 17. On the other hand, in order to irradiate the generated chips with a laser beam and cut them, it is necessary to make the chips rise approximately perpendicular to the rake surface. For this purpose, the shape of the rake face of the cutting tip 17 may be processed to generate such chips.

In the above explanation, we have described the case where a YAG laser is used as the laser, but the type of laser is not limited and any laser can be used as long as it can cut the generated chips.The oscillation mode can be pulsed oscillation, continuous oscillation, or Q Either Q-switch oscillation with a switch added may be used. Further, in this embodiment, for ease of explanation, a case has been described in which the scoop surface of the cutting tip and the laser condensing axis are substantially parallel, but these angles may be any angle that makes it easy to cut chips.

As explained above, in the present invention, a laser beam condensing optical section is attached to a cutting tool shank, and the laser beam is introduced into the condensing optical section through a fiber to cut generated chips using the laser. In contrast, it is possible to dispose of chips during both boring and boring operations. In addition, by adjusting the laser output, it is possible to process chips in real time regardless of whether they are rough chips or finished chips.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing the overall configuration of an implementation system of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a bite shank used in the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an external view of the bite shank shown in FIG. 2. 1... YAG laser head, 2... Laser power cooler, 3... Fiber coupling device, 4... Fiber for processing, 5... Bite shank, 6...
Observation fiber, 7...Observation fiber imaging optics, 8...Television camera, 9...Television monitor, 10...Bite shank bottom, 11...Housing, 12, 13...Screw, 14...Nozzle, 15
...Tip holder, 16...Screw, 17...Cutting tip, 18...Chip holding fitting, 19...
Fiber fixing jig, 20... collimator lens, 21... laser beam focusing point, 22... dichroic mirror, 23... focusing lens, 24... focusing lens for observation fiber, 25... chip spacer .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bite shank equipped with a laser device, a fiber coupling device for introducing the laser light emitted from the laser device into the fiber, a fiber for transmitting the laser from the fiber coupling device, and a bite tip for processing chips. The bite shank converts the laser beam transmitted by the fiber into parallel light, and includes a lens that can be finely moved and fixed in the optical axis direction, and a focusing lens that focuses the laser light converted into parallel light. a laser focusing optical section including a lens; an optical section for guiding light from a focusing point of the laser beam by the focusing lens to the observation system; and a cutting point of chips generated from the bit tip is the focusing point. and means for adjusting the mounting position of the bit tip so that the cutting tip is located at a point.