JPH0258039B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a laser processing device.

2. Description of the Related Art Laser processing apparatuses that perform processing while focusing laser light using a focusing lens and irradiating it onto a workpiece are well known and widely used. Further, as another device, a laser processing device that uses a laser oscillator, a plasma generator, etc. in combination to perform processing with improved processing efficiency has been developed and is being used.

However, although the processing efficiency and processing speed of each of the above-mentioned laser processing devices has been significantly improved compared to conventional general laser processing devices, the processing efficiency and processing speed are still low.
There was a problem in that it was difficult to process depending on the material of the workpiece, especially quartz glass.

Therefore, when processing the above-mentioned quartz glass, etc., which is conventionally difficult to process, the quartz glass is placed in a processing liquid, and the quartz glass is processed while being irradiated with laser light through the processing liquid. I was gone. However, in this case, if the laser beam is not of an appropriate wavelength, most of the laser beam will be absorbed by the processing fluid, and even if the laser beam is of an appropriate wavelength, the processing will not be completed. The problem was that it was time consuming and very inefficient.

The present invention has been developed based on the above-mentioned viewpoints, and its purpose is to achieve extremely high processing efficiency and processing speed, and to achieve extremely high processing efficiency and processing speed, regardless of the material of the workpiece. It is an object of the present invention to provide a laser processing apparatus that can reliably process even objects to be processed.

The gist of this is that in a laser processing device that focuses a laser beam oscillated from a laser oscillator using a focusing lens and performs processing while irradiating the workpiece with the laser beam, A casing that hermetically houses the workpiece, and a Cl ₂ ,
The present invention is provided with a halogen gas supply device that supplies a halogen gas such as F ₂ or a halogen compound gas such as Freon, and an abrasive particle injection device that injects abrasive particles onto the processing portion of the workpiece.

Hereinafter, the details of the present invention will be specifically explained with reference to the drawings.

The drawing is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a laser processing apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a housing, 2 is a packing, 3 is a lid that seals the housing 1 via the packing 2, 4 and 5 are housings, 4a is a hole formed in the housing 4, 4b is a fixing member formed integrally with the housing 4; 6 is a laser irradiation device attached to the housing 5; 7 is a fixing member formed integrally with the housing 4;
is a focusing lens attached to the inside of the housing 5; 8 is a focusing lens fixing member for fixing the focusing lens 7; 9 is a motor; 9a is a shaft of the motor 9; 10 is attached to the outer peripheral wall surface of the housing 4. an abrasive particle injection device; 11 a halogen gas supply device for supplying halogen gas or halogen compound gas; 12 a pressure regulating valve; 13 abrasive particles;
15 is a compressor that compresses the halogen gas or halogen compound gas supplied into the housing 1 and supplies it to the abrasive particle injection device 10; 16 is a workpiece; 17 and 18 are A cross slide table 19 is fixed in the housing 1 and moves the workpiece 16, and a turntable 20, 21 is provided on the cross slide table 17 to give rotational movement to the workpiece 16. and 22 are motors that drive the cross slide tables 17 and 18 and the turntable 19, respectively; and 23 is an abrasive particle collection box.

Cross slide tables 17 and 18 and a turntable 19 are fixed in the housing 1, and the workpiece 1 is mounted on the turntable 19.
6 is fixed. Further, a housing 4 having an abrasive particle injection device 10 attached to one end of the outer circumferential wall surface is fixed to a lid body 3 that seals the housing 1 via a packing 2, and a housing 4 is fixed to the lid body 3, which seals the housing 1 through a packing 2. The gas is supplied from a halogen gas supply device 11 via a pressure regulating valve 12.

A laser irradiation device 6 is attached to one end of the housing 5, and the laser irradiation device 6 uses a gas laser such as a CO ₂ laser or a He-Ne laser, a solid laser such as a ruby laser or a YAG laser, or the like.
Furthermore, it is configured so that the output can be further increased by a Q-switch method or the like if necessary. In this embodiment, one laser irradiation device is shown, but the number of the laser irradiation devices can be determined arbitrarily depending on the processing conditions such as the material, shape, and size of the workpiece 7. This can be changed to .

The laser beam emitted from the laser irradiation device 6 is focused by the focusing lens 7 fixed to the inner wall surface of the housing 5 by the focusing lens fixing member 8, and the laser beam is focused by the focusing lens 7 fixed to the inner wall surface of the housing 5 by the focusing lens fixing member 8. is irradiated.

At the joint between housing 4 and housing 5,
The outer diameter of the housing 5 is set to be approximately equal to the inner diameter of the housing 4, and the housing 5 is slidably attached to the housing 4. Further, a motor 9 is attached to one end of the outer peripheral wall surface of the housing 5, and its shaft 9a is threaded and engages with a female thread formed on the fixing member 4b of the housing 4. Therefore, it is possible to move in the XX direction in the figure in accordance with the rotation of the motor 9 attached to the housing 5.

In addition, a motor 9 that moves the housing 5 in the X-X direction in the figure, and a cross slide table 17
and 18, the motors 21, 22, and 23 that respectively move the turntable 19, the amount of abrasive particles ejected from the abrasive particle injection device 10, the amount of halogen gas supplied from the halogen gas supply device 11, etc. are determined in advance. The system is collectively controlled by a numerical control device (not shown) in accordance with a programmed program.

When processing is performed using the laser processing apparatus according to the present invention, gas of halogen such as Cl ₂ or F ₂ or halogen compound such as freon is supplied into the housing 1 from the halogen gas supply device 11. At the same time, abrasive particles 13 are ejected and supplied at high pressure from an abrasive particle injection device 10 attached to the outer peripheral wall surface of the housing 4 to a portion of the workpiece 16 to be machined. Thereafter, a laser beam is irradiated from the laser beam irradiation device 5, sufficiently focused by the focusing lens 7, and irradiated onto the processing portion of the workpiece 16.

The interior of the housing 1 is filled with halogen gas or halogen compound gas, and in particular, the gas in the processing portion of the workpiece 16 is heated to a high temperature by the laser beam focused by the focusing lens 7. Furthermore, since the abrasive particles 13 are ejected and supplied to that part at high pressure from the abrasive particle injection device 10, the workpiece 16 is processed in a short time due to the above two effects.

In particular, quartz glass with an outer diameter of 38 mm and an inner diameter of 4 mm is used.
Using a 100W CO ₂ laser, supplying Cl ₂ gas, and ejecting abrasive particles from an abrasive particle injection device, processing was carried out at a processing feed rate of 35 mm/min. I was able to cut it at min. Note that when similar quartz glass was processed using conventional processing time, the time required was several times that of the laser processing apparatus according to the present invention.

Since the present invention is configured as described above, when using the laser processing apparatus according to the present invention, processing can be performed using any combination of laser light, halogen gas or halogen compound gas, and abrasive particles. Regardless of the material, especially materials such as quartz glass that are difficult to process,
Moreover, it can be processed in a short time.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. That is, for example, in this embodiment, the workpiece is mounted on a turntable provided on a cross slide table and processed, but the workpiece is fixed to a workbench and the housing is moved to perform processing. Alternatively, the irradiation device may be an irradiation device using laser light and xenon light, and furthermore, an abrasive particle injection device may be installed in the housing. Alternatively, a halogen gas or a halogen compound gas may be injected and supplied to the processing section using a nozzle of an abrasive particle injection device as in the illustrated embodiment.
Further, the gas injection nozzle and the abrasive particle injection device are installed near the output side tip of the housing 4,
As shown in Figure 2 of Publication No. 57-184595, the housing is installed so that it can be rotated in a controlled manner around the four axes, and gas and abrasive particles are sprayed in the desired direction around the laser processing point under the control of NC, etc. It can be configured as follows. In addition, the mounting position and number of laser irradiation devices, the method of focusing the laser beam irradiated from the laser irradiation device, the method of controlling each part, etc. can be freely changed within the scope of the purpose of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention encompasses all of them.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a laser processing apparatus according to the present invention. 1... Housing, 2... Packing, 3... Lid body,
4, 5...Housing, 4b...Fixing member, 6...
... Laser irradiation device, 7 ... Focusing lens, 8 ... Focusing lens fixing member, 9 ... Motor, 10 ... Abrasive particle injection device, 11 ... Halogen gas supply device, 1
2... Pressure adjustment valve, 13... Abrasive particles, 14... Abrasive particle tank, 15... Compressor, 16... Workpiece, 17, 18... Cross slide table,
19... Turntable, 20, 21,
22...Motor, 23...Abrasive particle collection box.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a laser processing device that focuses laser light emitted from a laser oscillator using a focusing lens and processes the workpiece while irradiating the workpiece with the laser light, the workpiece is A casing that is hermetically housed, a halogen gas supply device that supplies halogen gas or a halogen compound gas into the casing, and an abrasive particle injection device that injects abrasive particles to the processing portion of the workpiece. The above laser processing device is characterized by: 2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the halogen gas is _Cl2 . 3. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the halogen gas is _F2 . 4. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the halogen compound gas is freon.