Laser head, laser device, and laser processing apparatus

Abstract

The application belongs to the technical field of laser processing, and more particularly relates to a laser head, a laser device and a laser processing equipment. The laser head provided by the embodiment of the application comprises a laser head body, the laser head body is provided with an entrance light channel for laser entering and an exit light channel for laser exiting, an inner cavity for mixing gas is arranged between the entrance light channel and the exit light channel, an air inlet for communicating with the inner cavity is arranged on the laser head body, and an air channel for communicating the inner cavity and the exit light channel is further arranged in the laser head body. The laser device provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the above laser head. The laser processing equipment provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the above laser device. The embodiment of the application reduces the space occupied by the external device and improves the space utilization of the production site.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of laser processing, and more particularly relates to a laser head, a laser device and a laser processing equipment. BACKGROUND

[0002] In the process of laser cutting and welding, various inert gases need to be used to assist the operation. Generally, a single inert gas or a mixed inert gas is provided by an external gas adjusting and mixing device. This external gas adjusting and mixing device needs to occupy a large site space. In actual industrial production environments, the site space is often limited, and the existence of such an external device increases the overall floor area of the cutting and welding equipment, which brings certain difficulties to the production layout of enterprises. CONTENT OF THE UTILITY MODEL

[0003] The embodiments of the application provide a laser head, a laser device and a laser processing equipment, which reduce the space occupied by the external device and improve the space utilization of the production site.

[0004] The technical scheme adopted by the embodiments of the application is as follows: a laser head is provided, which comprises:

[0005] A laser head body is provided with an entrance channel for laser entry and an exit channel for laser exit, an inner cavity for mixing gas is arranged between the entrance channel and the exit channel, the laser head body is provided with an air inlet for communicating with the inner cavity, and an air channel for communicating the inner cavity and the exit channel is further arranged in the laser head body.

[0006] Optionally, the exit channel comprises a first entrance and a first exit, the inner diameter of the exit channel gradually converges along the laser irradiation direction, the aperture of the first exit is smaller than that of the first entrance, and a storage cavity for storing mixed gas is formed in the exit channel.

[0007] Optionally, the air channel comprises an air inlet communicating with the inner cavity and an air outlet communicating with the exit channel, and the aperture of the first exit is smaller than that of the air outlet of the air channel.

[0008] Optionally, a shaping mirror group is arranged in the inner cavity, and the shaping mirror group is used for shaping laser.

[0009] Optionally, the shaping mirror group comprises a first protection mirror, a shaping mirror and a second protection mirror arranged in the light path of the inner cavity in sequence, the entrance channel comprises a second exit, the exit channel comprises a first entrance, the first protection mirror is arranged at the second exit of the entrance channel, the second protection mirror is arranged at the first entrance of the exit channel, and the shaping mirror is used for shaping laser.

[0010] Optionally, the airway is arranged obliquely to the second protective mirror.

[0011] Optionally, the laser head further comprises a plurality of control valves, which are arranged on the laser head body and communicate with the inner cavity of the laser head body, and are connected with an external gas storage device, and are used for controlling the amount of gas entering the inner cavity.

[0012] Optionally, the control valves are arranged on the side of the laser head body close to the light inlet channel.

[0013] The embodiment of the present application further provides a laser device comprising the laser head described above.

[0014] The embodiment of the present application further provides a laser processing equipment comprising the laser device described above.

[0015] The laser head, the laser device and the laser processing equipment provided by the embodiment of the present application have the following beneficial effects: the laser head of the embodiment of the present application introduces inert gas into the inner cavity of the laser head body and mixes the inert gas, thereby eliminating the external device, greatly reducing the purchase cost of the equipment. At the same time, the space occupied by the external device is reduced, and the space utilization of the production site is improved. In addition, since the external gas mixing device is not needed, the connection pipeline and the interface between the devices are reduced, the complexity and the failure rate of the system are reduced, and the maintenance cost of the equipment is further reduced.

[0016] Moreover, since the gas is mixed inside the laser head, the temperature of the gas can be better controlled, and the temperature difference between the gas and the laser is reduced. This reduces the loss of laser energy, improves the utilization rate of the laser, and further improves the cutting and welding effect.

[0017] The laser device of the embodiment of the present application comprises the laser head described above, and thus has the beneficial effects brought by the laser head, which will not be described herein again.

[0018] The laser processing equipment of the embodiment of the present application comprises the laser device described above, and thus has the beneficial effects brought by the laser device, which will not be described herein again. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art description will be briefly introduced as follows. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor.

[0020] Figure 1A perspective view of a laser head is provided for the embodiments of the present application.

[0021] Figure 2 A side view of a laser head is provided for the embodiments of the present application.

[0022] Figure 3 A perspective view of a laser head is provided for the embodiments of the present application. Figure 2 A sectional view along line A-A.

[0023] In the drawings, reference numerals:

[0024] 1, laser head body; 11, light inlet channel; 12, light outlet channel; 13, inner cavity; 14, shaping mirror group; 141, first protective mirror; 142, shaping mirror; 143, second protective mirror; 15, air channel;

[0025] 2, control valve. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] In order to make the technical problems to be solved by the present application, technical solutions and beneficial effects clearer, the present application will be further described in detail below in combination with the drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present application and not intended to limit the present application.

[0027] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" or "disposed on" another element, it can be directly on the other element or indirectly on the other element. When an element is referred to as being "connected to" another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or indirectly connected to the other element.

[0028] It should be understood that the terms "length", "width", "upper", "lower", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer" and the like indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and are only used to facilitate the description of the present application and simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the present application.

[0029] In addition, the terms "first", "second" are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the technical features indicated. Therefore, the features defined with "first", "second" can explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the present application, the meaning of "a plurality of" is two or more, unless otherwise specifically limited.

[0030] In the laser cutting and welding process, a plurality of inert gases are generally used to assist the operation, and the inert gases are generally provided by an external gas adjusting and mixing device. The external gas adjusting and mixing device has many problems in actual application.

[0031] Firstly, the external gas adjusting and mixing device has a high equipment cost.

[0032] Secondly, the external gas adjusting and mixing device needs to occupy a large site space. In actual industrial production environment, the site space is often limited, and the existence of the external gas adjusting and mixing device increases the overall floor area of the cutting and welding equipment, which brings certain difficulties to the production layout of the enterprise.

[0033] Thirdly, the inert gas provided by the external gas adjusting and mixing device usually has a large temperature difference with the laser, which easily leads to laser energy loss and affects the cutting and welding effect of the laser.

[0034] In addition, the laser head itself needs to additionally increase a water chiller to ensure the stability of the laser state. The increase of the water chiller not only further increases the equipment cost, but also puts higher requirements on the site and the number of equipment.

[0035] The laser head provided by the embodiment of the present application solves the above problems.

[0036] Please refer to Figures 1 to 3 , the laser head provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described. The laser head provided by the embodiment of the present application comprises a laser head body 1, the laser head body 1 is provided with an entrance channel 11 for the laser to enter and an exit channel 12 for the laser to exit, an inner cavity 13 for mixing gas is arranged between the entrance channel 11 and the exit channel 12, the laser head body 1 is provided with a gas inlet for communicating with the inner cavity 13, and the laser head body 1 is further provided with a gas channel 15 for communicating the inner cavity 13 and the exit channel 12.

[0037] The entrance channel 11 and the exit channel 12 of the laser head body 1 in the embodiment of the present application are in communication with each other, so as to ensure that the laser can smoothly enter from the entrance channel 11 and exit from the exit channel 12.

[0038] The inner cavity 13 is a mixing area of the inert gas, and the inert gas is provided by an external gas supply device in communication with the gas inlet of the laser head body 1. A plurality of inert gases enter the inner cavity 13 of the laser head body 1 from the gas inlet, mix in the inner cavity 13, the mixed gas enters the exit channel 12 from the gas channel 15, and exits from the exit channel 12 together with the laser, and acts on the cutting or welding end face. Since the mixing process of the inert gas is completed in the inner cavity 13 of the laser head body 1, the contact between the inert gas and the laser can be more uniform, the temperature difference between the inert gas and the laser can be reduced, and the cutting and welding quality can be improved.

[0039] Furthermore, when inert gas is introduced, the temperature of the laser head body 1 can be reduced, thus cooling the laser head body 1 and eliminating the need for an external cooling device.

[0040] At the same time, by reducing the external gas conditioning and mixing devices and cooling devices, costs are reduced, space is saved, and the space utilization rate of the production site is improved.

[0041] The light emission channel 12 includes a first light inlet and a first light outlet. The inner diameter of the light emission channel 12 gradually converges along the laser irradiation direction. The aperture of the first light outlet is smaller than the aperture of the first light inlet. A storage cavity for storing the mixed gas is formed inside the light emission channel 12.

[0042] The inner diameter of the light-emitting channel 12 gradually converges along the laser irradiation direction, that is, from the first light inlet to the first light outlet, the inner diameter of the channel gradually decreases. This structure makes the light-emitting channel 12 form a cone-shaped channel, which can increase the pressure of the mixed gas and make the mixed gas ejected from the first light outlet.

[0043] Within the light-emitting channel 12, due to the gradually converging inner diameter structure, a storage cavity is formed for storing the mixed gas. Its main function is to temporarily store the mixed inert gas, ensuring that the inert gas is evenly distributed within the light-emitting channel 12 and can fully contact the laser.

[0044] The air passage 15 includes an air inlet communicating with the inner cavity 13 and an air outlet communicating with the light emission channel 12. The aperture of the first light emission port is smaller than the aperture of the air outlet of the air passage 15.

[0045] This ensures that the mixed gas remains within the storage cavity, is evenly distributed within the light emission channel 12, and makes full contact with the laser. The smaller diameter of the first light emission port increases the flow rate of the mixed gas, allowing it to act quickly on the workpiece being processed.

[0046] Furthermore, a smaller first exit aperture helps to focus the laser, enabling the laser to form a smaller focal point on the cutting or welding end face, thereby improving the accuracy and efficiency of cutting or welding.

[0047] The inner cavity 13 is provided with a shaping mirror assembly 14, which is used for shaping laser.

[0048] The shaping lens assembly 14 may specifically include multiple lenses and mirrors arranged in a specific order to achieve multi-stage shaping. The first-stage lens can be used to initially adjust the divergence angle of the laser, making it more parallel; the second-stage mirror can be used to adjust the shape of the laser beam, making it more symmetrical; and the third-stage lens can be used to further optimize the energy distribution of the laser, making it more uniform. Through this multi-stage shaping design, the beam quality of the laser can be significantly improved.

[0049] Please see Figure 3 The shaping lens assembly 14 includes a first protective mirror 141, a shaping mirror 142, and a second protective mirror 143 sequentially disposed in the optical path of the inner cavity 13. The light inlet channel 11 includes a second light outlet, and the light outlet channel 12 includes a first light inlet. The first protective mirror 141 is disposed at the second light outlet of the light inlet channel 11, and the second protective mirror 143 is disposed at the first light inlet of the light outlet channel 12. The shaping mirror 142 is used for shaping laser.

[0050] The first protective mirror 141 prevents the mixed inert gas from entering the light inlet channel 11 and affecting other components inside the laser head.

[0051] The shaping lens 142 is used to shape the laser beam, adjusting its quality to make it more uniform and symmetrical, thereby improving the laser's focusing performance and cutting or welding effect. The shaping lens 142 can be a single lens or a combination of multiple lenses.

[0052] The second protective mirror 143 is used to prevent external impurities from entering the inner cavity 13 through the light output channel 12 during processing, which could contaminate the shaping mirror 142 or affect the laser. The first protective mirror 141 and the second protective mirror 143 can specifically be plane mirrors.

[0053] During use, the laser beam enters the laser head body 1 through the light inlet channel 11 and then enters the inner cavity 13 through the second light outlet. First, the laser beam passes through the first protective mirror 141, and then through the shaping mirror 142, which shapes the laser beam and adjusts its beam quality. The shaped laser beam then continues to pass through the second protective mirror 143. Finally, the shaped laser beam enters the light outlet channel 12 through the first light inlet and is emitted from the first light outlet along with the mixed inert gas, acting on the cutting or welding end face.

[0054] The airway 15 is tilted to the side of the second protective mirror 143.

[0055] This prevents the outlet of the gas duct 15 from facing the first light outlet of the light emission channel 12, and prevents the mixed gas entering the light emission channel 12 from immediately flowing out of the first light outlet, thus prolonging the residence time of the mixed gas in the light emission channel 12. This ensures that the mixed gas is evenly distributed within the light emission channel 12 and can make full contact with the inert laser.

[0056] The laser head also includes several control valves 2, which are located on the laser head body 1 and communicate with the inner cavity 13 of the laser head body 1. The control valves 2 are connected to an external gas storage device and are used to control the amount of gas entering the inner cavity 13.

[0057] The main function of control valve 2 is to regulate the gas flow rate, ensuring that the amount of gas entering the inner cavity 13 meets the requirements of the cutting or welding process. By adjusting control valve 2, the gas mixing ratio and flow rate can be flexibly adjusted, thereby optimizing the cutting or welding effect.

[0058] During use, an external gas storage device is connected to control valve 2 via a pipeline to provide the required inert gas. Control valve 2 adjusts the gas flow rate according to the set parameters, allowing the gas to enter the inner cavity 13 of the laser head body 1 through the pipeline. In the inner cavity 13, different gases are mixed in a set ratio, then enter the light emission channel 12 through the gas passage 15, and are emitted from the first light emission port together with the laser, acting on the cutting or welding end face.

[0059] To achieve more precise gas flow control, a multi-stage control valve design can be employed. For example, a primary coarse-adjustment control valve and a secondary fine-adjustment control valve can be used. The coarse-adjustment valve quickly adjusts the approximate range of gas flow, while the fine-adjustment valve fine-tunes the flow for more precise control. This multi-stage control design improves the flexibility and accuracy of gas flow control.

[0060] To achieve automated control, control valve 2 can be an electrically controlled valve. This electrically controlled valve can be remotely controlled by an external controller, which can automatically adjust the opening of control valve 2 according to preset process parameters, thereby achieving precise control of gas flow. This design can reduce errors from manual operation and improve production efficiency and cutting or welding quality.

[0061] To further improve control accuracy, a flow sensor can be installed to monitor gas flow in real time. The flow sensor feeds back the monitored flow data to the controller, which automatically adjusts the opening of control valve 2 based on the feedback data, thereby achieving closed-loop control. This feedback system ensures the stability of gas flow, maintaining precise control even under changing external conditions.

[0062] The control valve 2 is located on the side of the laser head body 1 near the light inlet channel 11.

[0063] Since the cable chain is generally located on one side of the light inlet channel 11, and the control valve 2 is located on one side of the light inlet channel 11, it facilitates wiring and makes the wiring of the laser head simpler.

[0064] This application also provides a laser device, including the laser head in any of the above embodiments.

[0065] The laser device of this application embodiment includes the laser head in any of the above embodiments, and therefore has the beneficial effects brought by the laser head in any of the above embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0066] This application also provides a laser processing device, including the laser device in any of the above embodiments.

[0067] The laser processing equipment of this application includes the laser device in any of the above embodiments, and therefore has the beneficial effects brought by the laser device in any of the above embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0068] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of this application and is not intended to limit this application. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, and improvements made within the spirit and principles of this application should be included within the protection scope of this application.

Claims

1. A laser head, characterized in that, include: The laser head body is provided with an input channel for laser beam entry and an output channel for laser beam exit. An inner cavity for mixing gas is provided between the input channel and the output channel. The laser head body is provided with an air inlet for communicating with the inner cavity. The laser head body is also provided with an air passage for communicating with the inner cavity and the output channel.

2. The laser head according to claim 1, characterized in that, The light emission channel includes a first light inlet and a first light outlet. The inner diameter of the light emission channel gradually converges along the laser irradiation direction. The aperture of the first light outlet is smaller than the aperture of the first light inlet. A storage cavity for storing the mixed gas is formed inside the light emission channel.

3. The laser head according to claim 2, characterized in that, The air passage includes an air inlet communicating with the inner cavity and an air outlet communicating with the light emission channel, wherein the aperture of the first light emission port is smaller than the aperture of the air outlet of the air passage.

4. The laser head according to claim 1, characterized in that, The inner cavity is equipped with a shaping mirror assembly, which is used for shaping laser.

5. The laser head according to claim 4, characterized in that, The shaping mirror assembly includes a first protective mirror, a shaping mirror, and a second protective mirror sequentially disposed in the optical path of the inner cavity. The light inlet channel includes a second light outlet, and the light outlet channel includes a first light inlet. The first protective mirror is disposed at the second light outlet of the light inlet channel, and the second protective mirror is disposed at the first light inlet of the light outlet channel. The shaping mirror is used for shaping lasers.

6. The laser head according to claim 5, characterized in that, The airway is tilted to the side of the second protective mirror.

7. The laser head according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes several control valves, which are disposed on the laser head body and communicate with the inner cavity of the laser head body. The control valves are connected to an external gas storage device and are used to control the amount of gas entering the inner cavity.

8. The laser head according to claim 7, characterized in that, The control valve is located on the side of the laser head body near the light input channel.

9. A laser device, characterized in that, Includes the laser head as described in any one of claims 1-8.

10. A laser processing device, characterized in that, Includes the laser device as described in claim 9.

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