WO2014185878A2

WO2014185878A2 - A laser processing bench with a movement mechanism

Info

Publication number: WO2014185878A2
Application number: PCT/TR2014/000182
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mastar ERCAN
Original assignee: Coşkunöz Metal Form Maki̇na Endüstri̇ Ve Ti̇c. A.Ş.
Priority date: 2013-05-13
Filing date: 2014-05-12
Publication date: 2014-11-20
Also published as: WO2014185878A3; TR201305695A2

Abstract

The present invention relates to a laser processing machine (10), particularly a laser cutting machine comprising a movable body (12) displaceable on a fixed body (11), and a movement mechanism (40) for providing movement of a laser head (30) provided on said movable body (12) in an independent manner from the movement of the movable body (12) and having at least one front arm (52, 62) moved by at least one drive element, characterized by comprising at least one carriage (73) provided on a rail (72) extending in a coordinate axis (x) after being connected to the laser head (30), another carriage (76) connected to said carriage (73), and a rail (75) whereon the carriage (76) is provided and connected to a connection plate (80) provided on the movement mechanism (40) from one side and extending in the other coordinate axis (y).

Description

SPECIFICATION

A LASER PROCESSING BENCH WITH A MOVEMENT MECHANISM TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to laser processing benches with a movement mechanism for providing movement of a movable body displaceable on a fixed body and for providing movement of a laser head, provided on said movable body, in an independent manner from the movement of the movable body.

PRIOR ART Laser processing machines are frequently used in various fields of industry. Laser processing machine can be used for different purposes like forming a work piece by cutting, welding two work pieces, hardening the work piece, covering the surface of the work piece or marking process onto the wall of the work piece. The laser processing machine functions by a laser head transmitting laser rays from a certain distance while moving on a predetermined process line on the work piece.

One type of laser processing machine models is the planar laser processing machine. Planar laser processing machines are used in applications of processing the planar surface of the work pieces. Cartesian planar movement axes are the axis X and axis Y, orthogonal with respect to each other; and the axis, which is worked on a wider range, is generally axis X. Laser head moves along axes X-Y, and provides processing of the work piece. The movement in axes X-Y is basically realized in four different types. The first one of these is the fixed tipped element type. In this type, the laser head is fixed and the working area is movable. In hybrid type machines, the laser head is movable in axis Y and the working area is movable in axis X. There are machines having movable laser cap and having a fixed working area. Moreover, there are machines with a movable working area in axis X in addition to a movable laser cap in axes X-Y.

During processing, the movement of the laser head in axis X in planar processing machines, where the work piece is motionless, is provided by a movable body, the movement of the laser head in axis Y is provided by the sliding ways provided on the movable body. In some novel systems, by means of the parallel mechanisms added onto the movable body, the laser head obtains additional movement capability. By means of using a parallel mechanism, the applying tip can be operated in an accelerated manner without deteriorating positioning sensitivity. In the patent applications with reference numbers US20110017714 and US20120097652, parallel mechanisms are described driven by two sliding hinges on axis Y in addition to the movement of the movable body in axis X. The laser head is provided on an extension part outwardly from the end of one of said sliding hinges. Thus, the position of the laser head is kept under control. By means of said embodiment, laser head is diverged from the movable body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a laser processing machine, for eliminating the above mentioned disadvantages and for bringing new advantages to the related technical field.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a laser processing machine where the positioning sensitivity of the laser head positioned on a movement mechanism is provided.

Another object of the present invention is to prevent unintentional movement as a result of the inertia formed during movement by providing connection of the laser head to the movement mechanism such that there is no movement freedom.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser processing machine where the laser head is movable in an independent manner from the movement of the movable body.

In order to realize all of the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention is a laser processing machine, particularly a laser cutting machine comprising a movable body displaceable on a fixed body, and a movement mechanism for providing movement of a laser head provided on said movable body in an independent manner from the movement of the movable body and having at least one front arm moved by at least one drive element. Accordingly, the present invention is characterized by comprising at least one rail connected to the laser head and extending in a coordinate axis belonging to said Cartesian coordinate system, at least one carriage provided on said rail, another carriage connected to said carriage by means of an interconnection plate, and a rail whereon said carriage is provided and extending in the other coordinate axis after being connected to a connection plate provided on the movement mechanism from one side, in order to provide movement of the laser head, provided on said movement mechanism, in a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. Thus, the radial movements of the laser head are prevented and the laser head can only move in the Cartesian coordinate system.

In a preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is at least one guide carrier whereon said rail is provided and extending outwardly from the connection plate providing connection of the movement mechanism to the movable body. Thus, the rail is fixed in a rigid manner.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is at least one rail carrying element connected to the laser head from one end and whereon the rail is positioned. Thus, the rail and the laser head are connected to each other in a rigid manner.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is at least one connection arm provided on said rail carrying element, in order to provide connection to the hinges providing connection to the front arms of the movement mechanism from two sides of the laser head.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is at least one each rear arms extending between the drive elements and the front arms in order to provide drive to the front arms of the movement mechanism.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is at least one carrier plate whereon the drive elements are provided. In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is at least one support plate provided in rib form between said carrier plate and the connection plate.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there are two support plates provided in a parallel manner with respect to each other so as to define a housing together with an intermediate plate extending in between.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the guide carrier is connected onto said housing. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In Figure 1, a general representative view of the subject matter laser processing machine is given. In Figure 2, a representative view of the movement mechanism and of the guide group is given.

In Figure 3, a representative exploded view of the movement mechanism and of the guide group is given.

In Figure 4, a representative top view of the movement mechanism and of the guide group is given. In Figure 5, a representative frontal view of the movement mechanism and of the guide group is given.

In Figure 6, a representative lateral view of the movement mechanism and of the guide group is given.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 Laser Processing Machine 60 Second drive element

1 Fixed Body 61 Rear arm

111 Guide Edge 62 Front arm

112 Sliding Way 63 Corner

113 Guide 64 Hinge

12 Movable Body 641 Pin

121 Connection End 70 Sliding way group

122 Bearing 71 Guide carrier

123 Front Wall 72 Rail

13 Bench 73 Carriage

131 Wheel 74 Interconnection plate

14 Sliding Way 75 Rail

20 Carrier Group 76 Carriage

21 Sliding Way 77 Rail carrying element

22 Drive Unit 771 Connection arm

23 Bearing 80 Connection plate

30 Laser head 81 Support plate

31 Laser application tip 82 Housing

40 Movement mechanism 83 Carrier plate

50 First drive element 84 Intermediate plate

51 Rear arm

52 Front arm a Connection axis

53 Corner x Axis

54 Hinge y Axis

541 Pin

THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In this detailed description, the subject matter laser processing machine (10), comprising a movement mechanism (40) for displacing the laser head (30) and a guide group (70) providing realization of the movements of the laser head (30) in a Cartesian coordinate system during said displacement, is explained with references to examples without forming any restrictive effect in order to make the subject more understandable. With reference to Figure 1 , the general view of the laser processing machine (10) is given. The laser processing machine (10) comprises a fixed body (11) having two columns and positioned on a floor, a movable body (12) provided on the fixed body (11), and a movable bench (13) provided so as to stay in the inner part of the fixed body (11). There is a guide edge (111) provided on each column forming the fixed body (11), and there is a sliding way (112) provided on the guide edge (111). On the columns, there are guides (113) extending in a parallel manner and adjacently with respect to the guide edges (111). The movable body (12) comprises connection ends (121) providing connection to the guide edges (111). There are bearings (122) provided inside the connection ends (121) and facilitating the movement of the movable body (12). There are two sliding ways (14) on the front wall (123) of the movable body (12), which are provided so as to extend in a parallel manner with respect to each other. There are wheels (131) providing connection to the bench (13) and providing movement of the bench on the guides (113). In the laser processing mechanism, there is a carrier group (20) connected to the movable body (12) through sliding ways (14). In order to facilitate connection of the carrier group (20) to the sliding ways (14), there are bearings (23) provided on the carrier group (20). There are two sliding ways (21) and a drive unit (22) provided on the front surface of the carrier group (20). The movement mechanism (40), whereon a laser head (30) is positioned, is connected to the carrier group (20) by means of a connection plate (80).

As can be seen in Figure 2, the movement mechanism (40) comprises at least two drive elements (50, 60) for providing movement of a laser head (30) in an independent manner from the movements of the movable body (12), and rear and front arms (51 , 61 , 52, 62) connected to said drive elements (50, 60) from one side and connected to the laser head (30) from the other side. Besides, there is a guide group (70) for preventing undesired movements of said laser head (30) during movement.

In more details, as can be seen from the exploded view provided in Figure 3 and as can be seen from the front, upper and lateral views provided in Figure 4 and Figure 5, there is a connection plate (80) for providing the connection of the movement mechanism (40) to the movable body (12). There is a carrier plate (83) connected in a substantially orthogonal manner with respect to said connection plate (80) and there is at least one support plate (81) positioned in a rib-like manner between the connection plate (80) and the carrier plate (83). In the preferred application of the present invention, two support plates (81) are positioned such that an intermediate plate (84) extends in between. Thus, a housing (82), wherein some part of the guide carrier (71) is disposed, is defined by the support plates (81) and the intermediate plate (84). The drive elements (50, 60) are positioned on the carrier plate (83) such that there is one each drive element on the two sides of the support plates (81). There are rear arms (51 , 61) connected to the drive elements (50, 60) and there are front arms (52, 62) hinged to the rear arms (51 , 61) in a rotatable manner by means of one each corners (53, 63). There is a laser head (30) between the idle ends of the front arms (52, 62) connected to the first and the second drive element (50, 60) by means of the rear arms (51 , 61). The laser head (30) is rotatably connected to the front arms (52, 62) by means of hinges (54, 64) provided on both sides. Accordingly, a connection axis (a) is defined extending between the hinges (54, 64) provided on two sides of the laser head (30). In the preferred application of the present invention, the laser application tip (31), provided on the laser head (30), is positioned on the connection axis (a). Said connection axis (a) should always be parallel with respect to the movable body (12) in order to provide monitoring of the position of the laser head (30) during operation of the movement mechanism (40). In order to provide this, there is a guide group (70) connected to the laser head (30) and to the connection plate (80).

Said guide group (70) comprises a guide carrier (71) fixed by being disposed into the housing (82) provided between the support plates (81 ) on the connection plate (80) from one side. Said guide carrier (71) extends in a parallel manner with respect to the rear and front arms (51 , 61 , 52, 62) and extends in an orthogonal manner with respect to the connection plate (80). There is a rail (72) extending in axis X on the side of the guide carrier (71) facing the arms (51 , 61 , 52, 62). There is at least one carriage (73) positioned on said rail (72) and there is the interconnection plate (74) said carriage (73) is connected thereto. On the other hand, there is a rail carrying element (77) extending in the connection axis (a) by being connected onto the hinges (54, 64). In order to provide connection of said rail carrying element (77) to the hinges (54, 64), there are connection arms (771 ) extending towards the hinges so as to correspond to two sides of the laser head (30). Said connection arms (771) are disposed on the pins (541, 641) provided on the hinges (54, 64). There is a rail (75) extending in axis Y by being positioned on the rail carrying element (77), and there is at least one carriage (76) provided on said rail (75). Said carriage (76) is connected to the interconnection plate (74) so as to be vertical with respect to the rail (72) extending in axis X. Thus, the connection axis (a) and the axis y are coincided, and by means of this, the connection axis (a) is always positioned in a parallel manner with respect to the interconnection plate (74). In other words, since the rail (75) extending in axis Y is orthogonal with respect to the rail (72) extending in axis X depending on said connection style, and thus since said rail (75) is parallel with respect to the connection plate (80), the connection axis (a) is always provided to remain parallel with respect to the connection plate (80). During usage of the movement mechanism (40), a rotational movement is provided to the rear arms (51 , 61) by means of the drive elements (50, 60), thus, the laser head (30) displaces by means of the movement of the front arms (52, 62) guided by the rear arms (51 , 61). By means of the drive applied to the rear arms (51 , 61), the laser head (30) moves in axis X, and displaces in the guidance of the rail (72) and in the guidance of the carriage (73). In a similar manner, when the laser head (30) moves in axis Y, it displaces in the guidance of the rail (75) and in the guidance of the carriage (76). Since the carriages (73, 76) are freely movable on the rails (72, 75) and since they are connected to the interconnection plate (74), the laser head (30) is movable in axes X and Y simultaneously. Thus, although the laser head (30) freely moves in every direction in a linear manner, the parallelism of the connection axis (a) with respect to the movable body (12) is not deteriorated and thus, the laser head (30) cannot realize any radial movement and it can always be kept in the desired position. In other words, the positioning sensitivity of the laser head (30) is provided. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, there are two each carriages (73, 76) on the rails (72, 75) extending in axes X and Y.

Thanks to said embodiment of the present invention, some part of the weight of the laser head (30) is carried by the guide group (70). Thus, the load applied to the arms (51 , 52, 61 , 62) of the movement mechanism (40) decreases. Thus, the deflection formed as a result of the weight of the laser head is decreased and the laser head (30) is positioned in a more correct manner in the vertical plane. Besides, there occurs the opportunity of selecting the drive elements (50, 60) which move the arms (51 , 52, 61 , 62) with lower powers. Moreover, since the force applied to the arms (51 , 52, 53, 54) decreases due to gravitational force, a bigger movement mechanism (40) and a wider working region can be obtained thanks to the longer arms (51 , 52, 53, 54).

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, the displacement of the laser head (30) can be provided by means of different drive elements and by means of different arm mechanisms. Accordingly, in said alternative embodiments, the laser head (30) is carried by one each arms connected to the linear motors. When drive is applied to the arms in order to provide displacement of the laser head (30), the guide group (70) controls the movements of the laser head (30) when the arms move forwardly and backwardly. Moreover, in an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the linear rail (42, 45) can be used as the linear movement system, and different linear movement mechanisms can be used instead of the carriage (43, 46) pair. The protection scope of the present invention is set forth in the annexed Claims and cannot be restricted to the illustrative disclosures given above, under the detailed description. It is because a person skilled in the relevant art can obviously produce similar embodiments under the light of the foregoing disclosures, without departing from the main principles of the present invention.

Claims

A laser processing machine (10), particularly a laser cutting machine comprising a movable body (12) displaceable on a fixed body (11), and a movement mechanism (40) for providing movement of a laser head (30) provided on said movable body (12) in an independent manner from the movement of the movable body (12) and having at least one front arm (52, 62) moved by at least one drive element (50, 60), characterized by comprising at least one rail (75) connected to the laser head (30) and extending in a coordinate axis (y) belonging to said Cartesian coordinate system, at least one carriage (76) provided on said rail (75), another carriage (73) connected to said carriage (76) by means of an interconnection plate (74), and a rail (72) whereon said carriage (73) is provided and extending in the other coordinate axis (x) after being connected to a connection plate (80) provided on the movement mechanism (40) from one side, in order to provide movement of the laser head (30), provided on said movement mechanism (40), in a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

A laser processing machine ( 0) according to Claim 1, characterized by comprising at least one guide carrier (71) whereon said rail (72) is provided and extending outwardly from the connection plate (80) providing connection of the movement mechanism (40) to the movable body (12).

A laser processing machine (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by comprising at least one rail carrying element (77) connected to the laser head (30) from one end and whereon the rail (75) is positioned.

A laser processing machine (10) according to Claim 3, characterized by comprising at least one connection arm (771) provided on said rail carrying element (77), in order to provide connection to the hinges (54, 64) providing connection to the front arms (52, 62) of the movement mechanism (40) from two sides of the laser head (30).

A laser processing machine (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by comprising at least one each rear arms (51 , 61) extending between the drive elements (50, 60) and the front arms in order to provide drive to the front arms (52, 62) of the movement mechanism (40).

6. A laser processing machine (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by comprising at least one carrier plate (83) whereon the drive elements (50, 60) are provided.

7. A laser processing machine (10) according to Claim 6, characterized by comprising at least one support plate (81) provided in rib form between said carrier plate (83) and the connection plate (80).

8. A laser processing machine (10) according to Claim 7, characterized by comprising two support plates (81) provided in a parallel manner with respect to each other so as to define a housing (82) together with an intermediate plate (84) extending in between.

9. A laser processing machine (10) according to Claim 8, characterized in that the guide carrier (71) is connected onto said housing (82).