Remote laser welding systems can usually focus a laser beam to diameters of 0.1 mm. Therefore, high quality clamping and precise teaching is needed in order to achieve appropriate process tolerance for a sound weld. This brings reservation in the field of small series and user-customized manufacturing, where product individualization requires flexible and adaptive systems as workpiece geometry is not exact due to manufacturing tolerances and thermal deformations during welding. The preparation for welding is therefore often time-consuming. To solve this, we have developed an innovative system, which enables in-line adaptive 3D seam tracking. The system consists of an industrial robot (Yaskawa MC2000), a scanning head (HighYag RLSK; working area 200 mm x 300 mm x 200 mm) with optical triangulation feedback and a fiber laser (IPG, YRL-400-AC; 400 W). A feed-forward loop was used to achieve positioning accuracy of under 0.05 mm during on-the-fly welding. Experimental results show that between welding speeds of 25 and 150 cm/min, average tracking deviations are 0.043 mm and 0.276 mm in y and z directions, respectively. Moreover, teaching times for a specified seam can be shortened for more than 10 times due to the fact that only rough seam teaching is required. The proposed system configuration could be adapted to other classical welding processes.
F.14 Improvements to existing production methods and tools or processes
COBISS.SI-ID: 16645659The patent titled: A Simple Laser with an Improved Pump System for Generating Laser Pulses on Demand describes an invention of a highly adaptable fiber laser with pulse-on-demand and precision pulse-duration tuning based on a compact optical design. The design combines the gain-switching technique with the all-fiber master oscillator and pump-recovery amplifier architecture. The approach of laser-pulse stability control by compensation pumping and pulse-duration control by changing the pump wavelength are introduced. At the time of report writing in the phase of international application WO2020204839A1.
F.33 Slovenian patent
COBISS.SI-ID: 16678427An adaptable, laser-diode-based illumination system was developed to simultaneously visualize the dynamics of slow and fast phenomena in optically transparent media. The system can be coupled with still or high-speed cameras and makes it possible to generate an arbitrary train of illumination pulses with a variable pulse duration, pulse energy, and an intrapulse delay with a temporal resolution of 12.5 ns. Its capabilities are presented with selected illustrative visualizations of the dynamics of the shock waves and the cavitation entities generated after the laser-induced breakdown in water.
F.14 Improvements to existing production methods and tools or processes
COBISS.SI-ID: 17080347During the project, an industrial test setup for laser transfer printing was established, combining a laboratory laser prototype developed during the project with an industrial device. A successful transfer of the paste to the glass substrate was performed exceeding the resolution requirements – in other words the speed of modulation in regard to the speed of laser beam over the paste. Thus, the result was the laser source tested both from the point of view of application and synchronization with a fast scanning system. The results are among the achievements of the project group in the field of economy and part of the results was presented at the international conference.
F.10 Improvements to an existing technological process or technology
COBISS.SI-ID: 24482563A demonstration of combining a fiber laser system with the solid state amplifier for even greater power scaling. Such hybrid architecture allows for adaptable operation at higher powers and lowers the effect of nonlinear phenomena in the case of short primary pulses. Adaptable operation is achieved by introducing idler pulses with a few nanoseconds duration and selectively switching between the ultrashort and idler pulses. The latter are used to maintain a constant population inversion in the amplifier chain. As there is no optical modulator at the laser output, the presented concept also enables further power scaling
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 17063707