Fanuc Corporation

General Electric Company

Nobuaki Iehisa

Etsuo Yamazaki

Norio Karube

Kazuhiro Suzuki

Akira Egawa

Mitsuo Manabe

Atsushi Watanabe

Akihiro Terada

Mitsuhiro Okuda

Hitoshi Enokizono

Todd Jay Rockstroh

Mitsuo Kinoshita

John L August, Jr

Tsuyoshi Nagamine

Mark J Kukla

Kenji Mitsui

Michiaki Irie

A laser machining apparatus with a simplified laser beam transmitting network. Respective laser beams form laser generators LS&num; to LS&num; divided into groups of G and G are aggregated to fiber-optic cables H and H by confluence devices HC and HC and transmitted to a most upstream laser beam outlet OP The laser beams are further aggregated to a fiber-optic cable H and distributed to a branch fiber-optic cable HH by the laser beam outlet OP and then distributed by laser beam outlet OP to OP to branch fiber-optic cables HH to HH The laser beams distributed to branch fiber-optic cables are focused by the machining tools TL to TL attached to robots RB to RB for laser machining. By controlling output levels of the laser generators with different oscillation wavelengths and different polarization characteristics, blend ratio of the laser beams can be adjusted. Distribution ratios of the laser beams at the laser beam outlets OP to OP are adjustable.

Laser machining apparatus

A plurality of laser generators are provided to be environmentally separated from a machining station, and temperature, humidity, vibration, cleanliness and the like are detected by a sensor, and displayed. When an abnormal environment is detected, machining operation is stopped immediately or after a predetermined time elapsed. The laser generators are grouped according to each machining tool, and fiber-optic cable switching devices FC and FC are arranged for each group. By the switchover of the laser generator, and the selective connection of a fiber-optic cable by using the fiber-optic cable switching device, the degree of freedom in selecting the laser generator and the fiber-optic cable is produced. The degree of freedom is utilized according to the abnormality of the laser generator, the abnormality of the fiber-optic cable, the type of machining work, and the like, by which a machining apparatus in which the occurrence of a partial failure does not lead to long-term shutdown of a manufacturing line can be obtained.

Gas discharge excitation laser device

Solid-state laser oscillating device

Laser output control system

An output waveform control device generates a pulse wave by processing waveform data from a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) unit and delivers the pulse wave for pulsed oscillation of a laser beam. The waveform data transferred from the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) unit is input to a duration-allocating device provided within a laser oscillator. The duration-allocating device of the laser oscillator allocates a duration .DELTA.T, set to a desired value, to each step of the waveform data W. The durations .DELTA.T are allocated in a shorter-to-longer order, and the resulting waveform data is transferred to a pulse wave-generating device. The pulse wave-generating device generates a pulse wave P1 based on the received waveform data W. The pulse wave P1 thus generated is preferably includes 20 pulse segments, each of which has a duration .DELTA.T allocated thereto which can vary from one segment to another. Accordingly, each pulse segment of the pulse wave P1 has a duration set as desired, and the pulse wave duration .SIGMA..DELTA.T as a total of the durations .DELTA.T, can be set as desired. This makes it possible to carry out laser beam machining in a suitable manner dependent on the type of machining.

Output waveform control device

This invention relates to face-pumped slab lasers of the type that have laser head assemblies constructed of individual components, which are rigidly attached together, in order to form an integral structure. Such structures of this type, generally, allow a face-pumped slab laser component to be assembled and disassembled easily and quickly.

Growing community of inventors

Mishima, Japan

Nobuaki Iehisa