machining thin-sheet brazing alloys with lasers: manufacturing precision thin-sheet metal, super-alloy and brazing alloy components presents special challenges to fabricators. (lasers).

High-
Technology Application of film
Plate products often require higher level of size control, finer features, higher cutting quality and higher cleanliness of finished products.
Reducing manufacturing costs in this case is a bigger challenge.
Wesgo Metals (San Carlos, CA)
It is supplier of brazing alloy for repair of engine parts of jet aircraft.
This company makes a super
Alloy and brazing alloy mixture for repairing high-stator blades
Jet pressure turbine
Aircraft engine.
The final product is cut out from the sintering plate of the mixture with a thickness of 0. 0 15\" (0. 38mm)to 0. 070\" (1. 78mm).
Traditionally, these boards are cut with water spray or punch heads and molds.
The company discovered these traditional technologies, even
Gas laser system for thin-
Sheet metal manufacturing requirements.
Waterjet is expensive, stains are left on the finished product and needs to be cleaned before shipping to the customer.
The cleaning process increases the cost of the product and increases the manufacturing time, thus reducing the productivity.
Flush heads have also been used in the past, but they are of limited value and can only be used to remove simple shapes (
Square, rectangle, etc. ).
In addition, they cannot be used to remove small features or small separated objects, and the purchase cost of the punch mold is high for more complex shapes.
Realize that the traditional method is not effective, Dr.
Toshi Oyama, R & D manager at Wesgo Metals, began working on various types of industrial laser technologies.
He looked back.
Using a fast laser cutting systemand slow-flow [CO. sub. 2]
2 Laser technology;
But he thinks there are several shortcomings. Flowing-
A gas laser in which the laser gas mixture flows continuously through the laser cavity, is large and high
Maintenance equipment with high capital and operating costs.
Laser technicians are also required to maintain these lasers, including replacement of Vacuum pump oil, replacement of internal optical elements, and handling of 30kV-
Excitation cavity.
In addition, the capital and operating costs of these lasers are high.
The cost of replacing three laser gases can reach dozens-of-
Thousands of dollars a year.
Maintenance downtime and operating costs will also greatly reduce productivity and profits.
Oyama pointed out that although these lasers can produce 3 KW of the output power, they meet our needs.
\"In order to cut our sintering thin plate cleanly, large flow
The gas laser must reduce the output power to about 400 W.
\"Obviously, having a kilowatt of electricity is not of any benefit to this application,\" he explained . \".
Pulses provide more precise control, and Wesgo searches from Beam dynamics (San Carlos, CA)
Featuring modern sealed [CO. sub. 2]
Laser using flat panel
Discharge technology of coherent photon group in Santa Clara, California
As the name implies, sealed [CO. sub. 2]
The laser seals the required gas mixture permanently in the laser cavity without the need to replace the gas. Unlike flowing-
Sealed [gas laser]CO. sub. 2 ]
The laser head does not require any service for 25,000 hours of continuous operation.
Therefore, the sealed [CO. sub. 2]
The laser eliminates maintenance downtime, which increases productivity and reduces costs.
Overall, lower facility requirements result in an average operating cost of less than half of the slow operating cost per hour
Flow laser and one below-
The fifth fastflow laser. The slab-
The discharge technology used to seal the laser produces a compact unit that is small enough and strong enough to be mounted directly on a robot arm or a mobile gantry, at the same time produce an average output power of up to 500W and 1.
Peak power 5 KW. The high-
Frequency pulse light emission of sealed lasers is another reason why they are used for compact, automated lasers
Cutting station.
The Pulse allows the user to accurately control the energy transfer speed and speed of the material processing.
Relative to the duration of the pulse, the plate-
High generation of discharge laser
Fast rising frequency pulseand-fall times.
Instead of just heating the metal, these lasers cut or drill holes efficiently to form a clean cut or hole with little heatinduced damage.
A flat-panel laser of a coherent laser set is designed to work in a 50% on/off mode, resulting in a peakpower of 1. 5kW per pulse.
The peak power removes the material faster because the closing time cools the material and minimizes the hazardous material (heat-affected zone).
Compact Laser
Small processing packaging, highpower, no-
[Maintenance seal]CO. sub. 2]
Compact Laser, software development-
Controlled laser machining centers, such as the LMC series of beam dynamics, are specially designed for cutting thin
Efficient sheet metal.
The LMC unit used by Wesgo Metals contains a 500W Diamond [TM]K-
500 of laser, power, cutting bed, beam transmission optics and control systems within a compact unit that takes up only 30 square feet. -ft. of floor space.
\"Our facility has no room at all for the installation of a giant flowing gas laser system,\" Oyama said . \".
\"So, LMC is perfect for our needs.
\"Although these systems are small in size, they are able to handle standard 4\'x4\' and 4\'x8\' metal plates.
They are also much cheaper than the big ones.
Laser cutting system.
For example, use a laser processing station capable of delivering up to 1 500W sealed laser.
5 KW peak power less than half of the 2 KW flow costgas laser.
\"Another very important feature of LMCs for Wesgo is their simplicity-to-
Use software control, \"explained Oyama.
\"It\'s easier to convert CAD drawings into CAM using this system.
This eliminates the need for highly skilled operators and reduces our manufacturing costs.
\"Advanced software control allows users to import drawings directly from many popular CAD programs in a variety of formats, including DXF and DWG.
A large database of materials and thicknesses is also provided from which users can select the appropriate process control parameters.
After importing the drawing, the software automatically converts the drawing file into a cutting program, calculates the fastest cutting path, and sets the laser operation parameters.
In order to limit the thermal impact zone and maintain the cutting quality, the dedicated microprocessor continuously monitors the actual cutting speed and dynamically adjusts the pulse rate and peak value
As the speed changes, the power of the laser.
Laser beam is designed for high quality control with rearview mirror for surface treatment of materials
Speed, digital Servo Motioncontrol system. These computer-
The controlled mirror guides the beam to a still working surface according to the pattern defined by the imported graphics file.
Because only light mirrors are moved, not the large mass of the cutting bed or the laser itself, these systems have high acceleration, ensuring strict dimensional control and accuracy.
According to Oyama, \"LMC immediately provides us with the accuracy, cutting quality and cleanliness of the final product that our customers need without the need for expensive and time --consuming post-
Process cleaning.