JPS6351700B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser processing device used for treating the human body, processing objects in factories, and the like.

In recent years, laser scalpel devices that use infrared laser light such as CO ₂ laser have been put into practical use for transpiration and incision of biological components.

However, in the past, a suitable optical fiber for passing the infrared laser beam of such a device had not been developed, so a mirror-articulated light guide path device consisting of a plurality of mirrors was used. An external laser beam was directed to the surgical site. However, this mirror joint type light guide path device had problems in terms of operability and maintainability, so active attempts were made to develop optical fibers for infrared lasers. As a result, in recent years, for example,
It is also a fact that guiding infrared laser light through optical fibers made of halides such as KRS-5 is gradually coming into practical use.

Now, the infrared laser beam guided by the commonly used mirror-articulated light guide path device as described above is focused by a condensing lens at the output end, and then irradiated onto the surgical site. However, since infrared laser light is invisible light, the operator cannot directly see the focal point, so in order to be able to see the focal point, the position of the focal point can be set using other visible light, such as He
- Must be displayed using Ne laser, etc. In the mirror-articulated light guide device, laser light used for work such as infrared laser light (hereinafter referred to as work light) and visible light (hereinafter referred to as work light) that guides the work light and indicates the convergence point of the work light , referred to as guide light) can be achieved relatively easily due to the structure.

However, in the case of a light guide path using an optical fiber as mentioned above, it is difficult to combine working light such as CO ₂ gas laser and He
-A material that can simultaneously pass guide light such as a Ne laser has not yet been developed. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an optical fiber that guides visible light separately from the optical fiber that guides working light, but in this case, there are two problems described below.

First, for example, the wavelength of CO ₂ gas laser light is 10.6 μm, while the wavelength of He-Ne laser light is 0.6 μm, which is an order of magnitude shorter, so the refractive index of the lens is different, and the focal length is different. Therefore, if the fiber output ends of the working light and the guide light are aligned and the re-light is condensed by a single lens, the convergence and focal point of the guide light will be higher than the condensing and focal point of the infrared light. It is located closer to the lens side. In order to prevent this drawback, the output end of the optical fiber for guide light should be configured to protrude beyond the output end of the optical fiber for infrared light, but if this configuration is used, the output of the optical fiber for working This has the disadvantage that the emitting end of the guide optical fiber is burned out by the infrared light emitted from the end.

Second, if the optical fiber output ends of the working light and the guide light are simply placed side by side, the output positions will not be the same, and the imaging positions of the lenses will be separated from each other. cannot be displayed.

In view of the above drawbacks, the present invention provides a plurality of optical fibers for guiding light on the outer periphery of the optical fiber for working light, and accurately matches the focus of the working light with the focus of the guiding light through first and second convex lenses. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a laser processing device that can perform the following steps.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a laser processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a main body of a laser device that controls irradiation with, for example, a CO ₂ laser beam and a He-Ne laser beam, and 2 is a main body of a laser device that is supported by a column 3 and incorporates an oscillation tube that generates a CO ₂ gas laser beam and a He-Ne laser beam, which will be described later. The housing section 4 shown in FIG. 5 is as described below.
An optical fiber for working light made of KRS-5,
It is connected to the housing part 2 via a fiber connector 6 by an optical fiber cable which is provided with a guide light fiber made of quartzite inside and whose outside is covered with a protective flexible tube. Lenses 7 for condensing the CO ₂ gas laser beam and the He--Ne laser beam sent out from the housing part 2 via the optical fiber cable 5 are provided as will be described later. The worker holds the handpiece in his or her hand to perform work.

Hereinafter, the relationship among the housing section 2, fiber cable 5, fiber connector 6, and hand piece section 7 will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG.

In the figure, 2a is a CO ₂ gas laser beam oscillation tube provided inside the housing part 2, and 2b is a He-Ne gas laser beam provided inside the housing part 2.
Gas laser beam oscillation tubes 2c and 2d are mirrors provided inside the housing part 2;
f is a convex lens made of ZnSe provided inside the housing portion 2, and 5a is an optical fiber for working light provided inside the optical fiber cable 5 made of KRS-5. Reference numeral 5b denotes a guide light optical fiber which is a bundle of a plurality of thin fibers made of methacrylic material, and is provided in the vicinity of its output end so as to cover the working light optical fiber 5a. 7a is a convex condensing lens provided on the hand piece 7, and 7b is a convex correction lens similarly provided on the hand piece 7.

Next, the configurations of the working light optical fiber 5a and the guide light optical fiber 5b in the handpiece section 7 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. In addition, FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of the handpiece section 7 in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the same.
In the drawings and FIG. 4, reference numeral 8 denotes a metal pipe fixed to the working light optical fiber 5a by a heat shrink tube 9.

As is clear from the figure, in the handpiece portion 7, a plurality of guide light optical fibers 5b are adhesively fixed to the outer periphery of a metal pipe 8 so as to be coaxial with the working light optical fibers 5a. Further, it is provided to protrude from the working light optical fiber 5b.

Regarding the operation of the device configured as above,
This will be explained below.

First, an operator operates the laser device main body 1 to bring the housing section 2 into an operating state. Then, the wavelength is emitted by the oscillation tubes 2a and 2b inside the housing part 2.
10.6μm _CO2 gas laser beam and wavelength
A 0.63μm He-Ne laser beam is emitted. The CO ₂ gas laser beam emitted from the oscillation tube 2a is once condensed by the convex lens 2e, and then enters the input end of the working light optical fiber 5a, and passes through the working light optical fiber 5a. The light is emitted from the emission end with a constant spread angle. The CO ₂ gas laser beam emitted from the output end of the optical fiber 5a for working light passes through a convex correction lens and is brought to a focus P by a convex condensing lens 7a.
is imaged.

On the other hand, the He--Ne gas laser beam emitted from the oscillation tube 2b passes through mirrors 2c and 2d, is once condensed by a convex lens 2f, and then passes through a guide light optical fiber 5.
The light is incident on the incident end of the guide light fiber 5b, and is emitted from the output end of the guide light optical fiber 5b with a constant divergence angle. The He--Ne gas laser beam emitted from the output end of the optical fiber 5b for working light is once imaged at a focal point Q on the optical axis of the condensing lens 7a by the convex correction lens 7b, and then focused by the convex condensing lens 7a. The CO ₂ gas laser beam is again imaged at a focused focal point P via 7a. Further, as described above, since the guide light optical fiber 5b is provided coaxially with the working light optical fiber 5a, the imaging position in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis also coincides. Furthermore, since each output end of the guide light optical fiber 5b is arranged in an annular shape with respect to the output end of the working light optical fiber 5a, from a macroscopic perspective, the outer diameter of the output end of the guiding optical fiber 5b is the working light. Although it is larger than the output end of the optical fiber 5a, by setting the imaging magnification of the guide light smaller than the imaging magnification of the working light, the condensed image at the focal point P can be made to coincide with the condensed image of the working light. I can do it.

Next, using FIG. 5, the positional relationship between the convex lenses 7a, 7b and the output ends of the optical fibers 5a, 5b will be explained. In FIG. 5, 5a' is the output end of the optical fiber 5a for working light, 5b' is the output end of the optical fiber 5b for guide light, 7a is a convex condensing lens provided on the handpiece section 7, and 7b is the same. This is a convex lens for correction provided in the handpiece section 7.

First, the material of the condensing convex lens 7a and the convex correction lens 7b is ZnSe, and each lens 7a, 7b responds to CO ₂ gas laser light (working light) with a wavelength of 10.6 μm.
If the focal lengths of are ₁ and ₂ , respectively, then the wavelength
The focal length of each lens 7a and 7b for a 0.6 μm He-Ne laser beam (guide light) is approximately 0.88 ₁ ,
0.88 ₂ , and the focal length is slightly shorter. Further, if the focal position of the correction convex lens 7b for the CO ₂ gas laser beam is F ₁₁ and the back focal position is F ₁₂ , then
The front and back focal positions of the He--Ne gas laser beam are at points F' ₁₁ and F' ₁₂ , respectively. Similarly, if the front focal position of the condensing convex lens 7a for the CO ₂ gas laser beam is F ₂₁ and the rear focal position is F ₂₂ , the front focal position and the rear focal position of the He--Ne gas laser beam are respectively F'. ₂₁ , F′ ₂₂ .

Therefore, the output end 5 of the guide light optical fiber 5b
The real image b' is formed at point Q by the correcting convex lens 7b. When this point Q is placed closer to the correcting convex lens 7b than the front focal point position F' ₂₁ , the real image at the Q point is again formed as a real image P by the condensing convex lens 7a. That is, the guide light optical fiber 5b
The guide light emitted from the output end 5b' is focused and imaged at point P. When these positional relationships are shown using the lengths a ₁ , a ₁ ′b ₁ , b′ ₁ , a′ ₂ , and b ₂ shown in FIG. 5, 1/a′ ₁ +1/b′ ₁ = 1 _/'1...(1 ) 1/ _a'2 +1/ _b2 =1/' ₂ '...(2)

Further, the output end 5a' of the optical fiber 5a for working light is
Since it is placed closer to the correction convex lens 7b than the point _F11 , the virtual image is created by the correction convex lens 7b.
It is formed at point Q′. This virtual image is collected by the condensing lens 7
In order to match point P as a real image by a, 1/(b ₁ +b' ₁ +a' ₂ )+1/b ₂ = _1/2 ...(3) 1/a ₁ -1/b ₁ = _1/1 The output end 5'a of the optical fiber 5a for working light is provided at a position that satisfies (4). That is, first determine a′ ₁ , b′ ₁ , a′ ₂ , b ₂ from the first and second equations, and then
Determine b ₁ from the formula and a ₁ from the fourth formula.

Also, the magnification of the guide light (b′ ₁ /a′ ₁ )×(b ₂ /a′ ₂ )
and the magnification of the working light (b ₁ / a ₁ ) × [b ₂ / (b ₁ + b′ ₁ +
a′ ₂ )] by the outer diameter of the output end of each fiber, and by setting the parameters so that the values are equal, the sizes of the guide light and working light images can be made equal. .

As described above, according to this embodiment, the guide light fiber 5b is attached to the outer periphery of the working light optical fiber 5a.
and the output end 5 of each optical fiber.
By installing a' and 5b' in consideration of the position of the correction lens 7b, it is possible to match the point P of the final convergence and imaging of the guide light and the working light.
In addition, the sizes of the images of the guide light and the working light can be matched, and since the plurality of guide light optical fibers 5b are integrally bonded to the outer periphery of the optical fiber 5a, each optical fiber can be easily removed. It is not necessary to fix 5a and 5b to the handpiece section 7, respectively, and adjustment becomes easy. Further, the guide light optical fiber 5b is the working light optical fiber 5.
By using an optical fiber that is sufficiently thinner than a, the optical fiber cable 5 finally has good flexibility.

As shown in FIG. 3, the output end 5a' of the working light optical fiber 5a is connected to the guide light optical fiber 5b.
However, even if the output end 5a' of the working light optical fiber 5a is located between points _F11 and _F11 ' shown in FIG. By being able to match the imaging points of the two optical fibers, the end surfaces of the output ends 5a' and 5b' of both optical fibers may be made to match and be located between the point _F11 and the point _F11 '.

As described above, the present invention provides a plurality of guide light optical fibers that are thinner than the working light optical fibers so as to be coaxial with the output end of the working light optical fibers, and at the same time, Arranging the output end of the working light optical fiber behind the front focal point of the first convex lens,
A virtual image of the output end of the working light optical fiber formed by the first convex lens is formed as a real image by a second convex lens, and the output end of the guide light optical fiber is positioned at the front focal point of the first convex lens. The real image of the output end of the guide light optical fiber formed by the first convex lens is made to coincide with the image of the output end of the working light optical fiber formed by the second convex lens. By configuring this, the condensing points of the working light and the guide light can be precisely matched, and this has great industrial value.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of a laser processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same main part, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the optical fiber in the handpiece section, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the same. , FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the positional relationship of the optical system. 2a... CO ₂ gas laser beam oscillation tube, 26
...He-Ne gas laser beam oscillation tube, 5a...
...Optical fiber for working light, 5b... Optical fiber for guide light, 7a... Convex lens for condensing light, 7b...
Convex lens for correction.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A work light generation source that generates work light for performing work, a work light optical fiber that guides the work light transmitted from the work light generation source, and a work point of the work light. a guide light source that generates a guide light for confirming the operation of the working light; A plurality of guide light optical fibers are arranged so that the working light optical fibers are thinner than the working light optical fibers, and the guide light optical fibers are arranged so that the output ends of the working light optical fibers are behind the front focal point position. A first convex lens installed at a position where the output end of the fiber is in front of the front focal point position, and a virtual image of the output end of the working light optical fiber formed through the first convex lens is formed as a real image. and a second convex lens installed such that a real image of the output end of the guide light optical fiber formed via the first convex lens coincides with an image formation point of the output end of the working light optical fiber. A laser processing device equipped with a convex lens. 2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output end of the optical fiber for working light is projected beyond the output end of the optical fiber for guide light.