Laser processing device and laser processing method

Abstract

To provide a laser processing device and a laser processing method which can perform a perforating process for stably achieving a desired perforated-hole shape, at low cost and with high efficiency, on a broad thin plate, without receiving a restriction on a processing-width and without causing a perforation failure and receiving influence of vertical swinging of the thin plate, in performing the perforating process for consecutively and repeatedly forming a number of through-holes in the lengthy thin plate.SOLUTION: A laser processing device 100 is configured so that pulse light P emitted from a laser oscillating part 140 is condensed by a light condensing part 150 into a thin plate W, while transferring the thin plate W to be processed in a plate longitudinal direction of the thin plate W, which makes a galvano-scanner part 160 reflect the pulse light P so that the light points to a direction of penetrating through both sides of the thin plate W and sweeps in a plate width direction of the thin plate W while irradiating the thin plate W with the light, and makes a control part 170 perform control so that gas is jetted toward a processing area PA over the plate width direction of the thin plate W from an air nozzle body 180, in consecutively perforating a number of through-holes H.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a laser processing apparatus and a laser processing method for forming a large number of through holes at uniform hole intervals in a long, wide thin plate. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, when a large number of through holes are formed in a workpiece such as a thin metal plate, etching, punching or laser processing is carried out.

[0003] Among these processes, a laser processing device is known that, when performing processes such as drilling with laser light, removes unwanted molten material such as debris by sucking air from the processing site (Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2).

[0004] Also, in cutting or patterning using laser light, a laser processing device is known that ejects an assist gas from a nozzle integrated with an ejection optical system to remove unwanted molten material such as debris (Patent Documents 3 to 6). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] JP 2021-109183 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2018-114543 A [Patent Document 3] JP 2021-133389 A [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-100681 [Patent Document 5] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-239572 [Patent Document 6] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-271965 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] However, the laser processing devices described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 simply suck up and remove debris generated during laser processing, and make little contribution to improving the efficiency of the drilling process itself. In addition, the laser processing devices described in Patent Documents 3 to 6 improve the accuracy or efficiency of the laser processing itself by ejecting assist gas to remove unwanted molten material such as debris, but regardless of which laser processing device is used, in order to perform drilling to form a large number of through holes at uniform hole spacing in a wide and long material, it is necessary to precisely move the material to be processed using an XY table and process it sequentially, which is inefficient and involves the problem of high costs due to the ejection of assist gas.

[0007] The present invention solves the problems of the prior art as described above. Specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide a laser processing apparatus and a laser processing method which, when performing drilling to form a large number of through holes in a long thin plate, can perform drilling of a wide thin plate without being restricted by the processing width, does not cause poor drilling, and can stably obtain the desired opening shape without being affected by the up and down oscillation of the thin plate, and which performs drilling at low cost and with high efficiency by significantly reducing the amount of air used in the drilling process compared to when gas is sprayed over the entire processing area or gas is sucked into the entire processing area. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] The laser processing apparatus of the present invention according to claim 1 includes a thin plate transport unit that transports a long thin plate to be processed in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate, a laser oscillator unit that emits pulsed light, a focusing unit that focuses the pulsed light on the thin plate, a galvano scanner unit that reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps it in the width direction of the thin plate, and a control unit that controls the operations of the thin plate transport unit, the laser oscillator unit, and the galvano scanner unit, and the thin plate transport unit, irradiates the pulsed light while transporting the thin plate in the longitudinal direction, thereby repeatedly forming a large number of through holes in the thin plate. The laser processing apparatus includes an air nozzle body having a plurality of air nozzles arranged across the width direction of the thin plate and spraying gas toward a processing area, each of the plurality of air nozzles having an on-off valve, and the control unit includes a laser control unit that controls the emission operation of pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit, an on-off valve control unit that controls the opening and closing operations of the on-off valves, and a timing control unit that synchronizes the timing of the emission operation of pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit with the opening and closing timing of the on-off valves, thereby solving the above-mentioned problems.

[0009] The laser processing apparatus of the invention according to claim 2 further solves the above-mentioned problem by controlling the timing control unit to selectively open only those air nozzles among the multiple air nozzles that correspond to the portion of the thin plate that is currently irradiated with the pulsed light, and close the other air nozzles.

[0010] The laser processing apparatus of the invention according to claim 3 further solves the above-mentioned problems by, in addition to the configuration of the laser processing apparatus described in claim 1 or claim 2, the opening / closing valve being an solenoid valve.

[0011] The laser processing apparatus of the invention according to claim 4 further solves the above-mentioned problem by, in addition to the configuration of the laser processing apparatus described in claim 1 or claim 2, the control unit being equipped with a transport speed control unit that controls the transport speed of the thin plate by the thin plate transport unit.

[0012] The laser processing method of the invention according to claim 5 solves the above-mentioned problems by: a thin plate transport unit transports a long thin plate to be processed in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate; a focusing unit focuses the pulsed light emitted from a laser oscillator unit; and a galvano scanner unit reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps it in the width direction of the thin plate to continuously and repeatedly form through holes; an air nozzle body having a plurality of air nozzles arranged across the width direction of the thin plate sprays gas toward a processing area; a laser control unit controls the emission of the pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit; an on-off valve control unit controls the opening and closing of on-off valves provided respectively on the plurality of air nozzles; and a timing control unit synchronously controls the timing of the emission of the pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit and the opening and closing of the on-off valves.

[0013] The laser processing method of the invention according to claim 6 further solves the above-mentioned problems by controlling the timing control unit to selectively open only those air nozzles among the multiple air nozzles that correspond to the portion of the thin plate that is currently irradiated with the pulsed light, and close the other air nozzles.

[0014] The laser processing method of the invention according to claim 7 further solves the above-mentioned problem by, in addition to the configuration of the laser processing method described in claim 5 or claim 6, the on-off valve is an electromagnetic valve and the on-off valve control unit electromagnetically controls the opening and closing operation of the on-off valve.

[0015] The laser processing method of the invention according to claim 8 further solves the above-mentioned problems by, in addition to the configuration of the laser processing method according to claim 5 or claim 6, the transport speed control unit controls the transport speed of the thin plate by the thin plate transport unit. Effect of the Invention

[0016] According to the laser processing apparatus of the invention related to claim 1 of the present invention, the apparatus is equipped with a thin plate transport section which transports a long thin plate to be processed in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate, a laser oscillator section which emits pulsed light, a focusing section which focuses the pulsed light on the thin plate, a galvanometer scanner section which reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps it in the width direction of the thin plate, and a control section which controls the operation of the thin plate transport section, the laser oscillator section, and the galvanometer scanner section, respectively.As a result, not only can the apparatus be processed to continuously and repeatedly form through holes in the thin plate by irradiating the pulsed light while transporting the thin plate in the longitudinal direction of the plate, but the configuration unique to the present invention can also produce the following effects unique to the present invention.

[0017] First, by providing an air nozzle body that sprays gas toward the processing area, the sprayed assist air assists the drilling process using pulsed light and removes unnecessary unmelted areas together with the molten material, making it possible to reduce drilling defects and obtain the desired opening shape.

[0018] In addition, the time required for one drilling process, i.e., the time required for laser irradiation to the drilling area, is shortened, so that the sweep speed of the pulsed light and the transport speed of the thin plate can be increased to perform drilling efficiently and at low cost, and a stable opening shape can be obtained that is less affected by the up and down oscillation of the thin plate.

[0019] In addition to these effects, the air nozzle body has a plurality of air nozzles arranged across the width of the thin plate and spraying gas toward the machining area, so that the plurality of air nozzles spray assist air across the width of the thin plate toward the machining area, making it possible to drill holes in wide thin plates without being restricted by the machining width.

[0020] Furthermore, since each of the multiple air nozzles is equipped with an on-off valve, the air nozzle can be opened and closed to eject gas from the air nozzle required for hole opening processing. Also, the control unit is equipped with a laser control unit that controls the emission of pulsed light by the laser oscillator, an on-off valve control unit that controls the opening and closing of the on-off valves, and a timing control unit that synchronizes the timing of the emission of pulsed light by the laser oscillator and the opening and closing of the on-off valves. This allows gas to be ejected onto the processing area in a timely manner, making it less likely that poor drilling will occur and allowing the desired hole shape to be obtained. In addition, the amount of air used for drilling processing can be significantly reduced compared to when gas is ejected over the entire processing area or gas is sucked into the entire processing area.

[0021] According to the laser processing apparatus of the invention of claim 2 of the present invention, in addition to the effects achieved by the invention of claim 1, the timing control unit selectively opens only the air nozzles among the multiple air nozzles that correspond to the portion of the thin plate that is currently irradiated with the pulsed light, and closes the other air nozzles, thereby selectively blowing gas only onto the portion of the thin plate where a through hole is currently being drilled, thereby further reducing the amount of air used for drilling.

[0022] According to the laser processing apparatus of the invention of claim 3 of the present invention, in addition to the effects achieved by the invention of claim 1 or claim 2, since the opening / closing valve is an electromagnetic valve, the timing of the sweep of the pulsed light by the galvanometer scanner and the opening / closing timing of the opening / closing valve are precisely synchronously controlled, making it even less likely that defective drilling will occur, making it possible to obtain the desired opening shape, and further reducing the amount of air used in drilling.

[0023] According to the laser processing apparatus of the invention of claim 4 of the present invention, in addition to the effects achieved by the invention of claim 1 or claim 2, the control unit is equipped with a transport speed control unit that controls the transport speed of the thin plate by the thin plate transport unit, so that the transport speed of the thin plate is set to a required speed and kept constant, and therefore the hole spacing in the longitudinal direction of the plate becomes a constant value, making it possible to perform drilling processing in which a large number of through holes are formed at uniform hole spacing along the longitudinal direction of the thin plate.

[0024] According to the laser processing method of the invention related to claim 5 of the present invention, the thin plate transport section transports the long thin plate to be processed in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate, while the focusing section collects the pulsed light emitted from the laser oscillator section, and the galvanometer scanner section reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps it in the width direction of the thin plate, thereby not only making it possible to process the thin plate by irradiating it with pulsed light while transporting it in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate, but also producing the following effects unique to the configuration of the present invention.

[0025] First, the air nozzle body sprays gas toward the processing area, and the sprayed air assists the drilling process using the pulsed light and removes unnecessary unmelted areas together with the molten material, so that the desired opening shape can be obtained without any drilling defects.

[0026] In addition, the time required for one drilling process, i.e., the time required for laser irradiation to the drilling area, is shortened, so that the sweep speed of the pulsed light and the transport speed of the thin plate can be increased to perform drilling efficiently and at low cost, and a stable opening shape can be obtained that is less affected by the up and down oscillation of the thin plate.

[0027] In addition to these effects, the air nozzle body has multiple air nozzles arranged across the width of the thin plate, and sprays gas toward the processing area, so that the gas spray range from the air nozzle body spans the width of the thin plate, making it possible to drill holes in wide thin plates without being restricted by the processing width.

[0028] Furthermore, the laser control unit controls the emission operation of the pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit, the on-off valve control unit of the control unit controls the opening and closing operation of the on-off valves provided on each of the multiple air nozzles, and the timing control unit of the control unit synchronously controls the timing of the emission operation of the pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit and the opening and closing timing of the on-off valves. This allows the opening and closing operation of each air nozzle to be performed to eject gas from the air nozzles required for hole opening processing, and the gas is ejected into the processing area in a timely manner, making it less likely that poor drilling will occur and allowing the desired hole opening shape to be obtained, and also significantly reducing the amount of gas used for drilling processing compared to when gas is ejected over the entire processing area or gas is sucked into the entire processing area.

[0029] According to the laser processing method of the invention of claim 6 of the present invention, in addition to the effects achieved by the invention of claim 5, the timing control unit selectively opens only the air nozzles among the multiple air nozzles that correspond to the portion of the thin plate that is currently irradiated with the pulsed light, and closes the other air nozzles, thereby selectively blowing gas only onto the portion of the thin plate where a through hole is currently being drilled, and the amount of air used for drilling can be further reduced.

[0030] According to the laser processing method of the invention of claim 7 of the present invention, in addition to the effects achieved by the invention of claim 5 or claim 6, the opening / closing valve is an electromagnetic valve, and the opening / closing valve control unit electromagnetically controls the opening and closing operation of the opening / closing valve, thereby precisely synchronously controlling the sweep timing of the pulsed light by the galvanometer scanner and the opening / closing timing of the opening / closing valve, thereby making it even less likely that defective drilling will occur, making it possible to obtain the desired opening shape, and further reducing the amount of gas used in the drilling process.

[0031] According to the laser processing method of the invention of claim 8 of the present invention, in addition to the effects achieved by the invention of claim 5 or claim 6, the transport speed control unit of the control unit controls the transport speed of the thin plate by the thin plate transport unit, thereby setting the transport speed of the thin plate to a required speed and keeping it constant, so that the hole spacing in the longitudinal direction of the plate becomes a constant value, and drilling can be performed to form a large number of through holes at uniform hole spacing along the longitudinal direction of the thin plate. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0032] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic conceptual diagram of a laser processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 1 is a schematic front view of a laser processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which a laser processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention processes a long thin plate; [Figure 4] A partially enlarged view of Figure 3. [Diagram 5] 1 is a functional block diagram of a laser processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a control timing of the laser processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0033] The laser processing apparatus of the present invention is equipped with a thin plate transport section which transports a long thin plate to be processed in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate, a laser oscillator section which emits pulsed light, a focusing section which focuses the pulsed light on the thin plate, a galvanometer scanner section which reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps it in the width direction of the thin plate, and a control section which controls the operation of the thin plate transport section, the laser oscillator section, and the galvanometer scanner section, respectively, so that the specific embodiment of the apparatus can be any as long as it is possible to process the thin plate by irradiating it with pulsed light while transporting it in the longitudinal direction of the plate to continuously and repeatedly form through holes in the thin plate.

[0034] Furthermore, the laser processing method of the present invention may be implemented in any specific manner so long as a thin plate transport unit transports a long thin plate to be processed in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate, a focusing unit focuses pulsed light emitted from a laser oscillator unit, and a galvanometer scanner unit reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps it in the width direction of the thin plate to continuously and repeatedly form through holes.

[0035] The thin plate transport section used in the laser processing apparatus of the present invention can be configured to include a feed reel for feeding out a long, flexible thin plate and a take-up reel for winding up the long thin plate, and the rotation period of these is configured so that the transport speed of the thin plate can be set to a desired value and maintained constant.

[0036] As the laser oscillator used in the laser processing apparatus of the present invention, various industrial laser emission devices that emit pulsed light used for drilling can be used. Specifically, KrF, ArF, XeCl, XeF excimer lasers, Nd-YAG laser, CO2 laser, CO laser, nitrogen laser, solid-state laser, ruby ​​laser, semiconductor laser, tunable diode laser, high-power fiber laser, etc. can be used.

[0037] This pulsed light can be used in single mode or multimode by setting the pulse intensity (height) and pulse duration (width) depending on the physical properties of the thin plate so that the formation of a through hole can be achieved with a single pulse irradiation, and these can be used in ring mode.

[0038] In addition, the pulsed light can be focused into the desired shape of the through hole to be formed, such as a circle, ellipse, square, diamond, or other polygon, or can be focused into a ring shape around the outer edge of these shapes.

[0039] Since the period of the pulses emitted by the laser emission means, together with the transport speed in the thin plate transport section and the scanning period of the galvanometer scanner, has a significant effect on the position and pattern of the through holes in the thin plate, it is preferable to provide an adjustment means for keeping the emission period of the pulsed light constant or for appropriately setting it variable.

[0040] The optical system constituting the focusing section used in the laser processing apparatus of the present invention can be constructed by combining a beam expander, a beam homogenizer, a collimator, an axicon lens, a diffractive optical element (DOE), etc., and it is particularly preferable to configure it to focus high-power laser pulse light in a ring shape.

[0041] Therefore, in addition to using a CW ring mode laser beam, it is possible to employ a configuration in which a diffractive optical element (DOE) is combined with a single mode laser beam, or a configuration in which an Axico lens is combined with a single mode laser beam, etc.

[0042] Each air nozzle constituting the air nozzle body used in the laser processing apparatus of the present invention can be any of various flat-type air nozzles that evenly spray air supplied from an air compressor, for example, air nozzles having multiple nozzles arranged in a straight line over a width of 24 mm, 42 mm, 50 mm, or 121 mm can be used. However, air nozzles with smaller widths are preferred because they can selectively spray assist air only onto the portion of the thin plate that is currently being drilled with the laser pulse light.

[0043] In addition, in order to shorten the irradiation time of the laser pulse light and to eject assist air so as to prevent poor drilling and obtain the desired opening shape, the air nozzle is preferably configured to blow air at an angle of 30 degrees or more and 60 degrees or less against the thin plate to be processed, and more preferably at an angle of approximately 45 degrees.

[0044] Drilling using the laser processing apparatus of the present invention can be applied to long thin plates made of any flexible material, and in particular to thin metal films of aluminum, titanium, stainless steel, nickel, copper, etc., having a thickness of 300 μm or less.

[0045] The width of the thin plate to be processed by the laser of the present invention can be set arbitrarily without any restrictions as long as the air nozzles can be arranged across the width and the thin plate can be irradiated approximately uniformly by scanning the laser pulse light in the width direction. Therefore, efficient continuous drilling can be performed even on a wide and long thin plate.

[0046] In this specification, "uniform hole spacing" refers to the spacing at which through holes are regularly arranged, and is not limited to the so-called "parallel round holes" or "straight square holes" matrix arrangement in which the arrangement direction connecting the centers of multiple through holes formed in a thin plate forms 0 degrees and 90 degrees with respect to the plate width direction, but also includes spacing that forms patterns such as the so-called "staggered round holes" or "beveled angle punched" matrix arrangement at 45 degrees with respect to the plate width direction, and the so-called "staggered round holes", "staggered square holes", or "tortoiseshell hole" arrangement at 60 degrees with respect to the plate width direction. EXAMPLES

[0047] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A laser processing apparatus and a laser processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. Here, Figure 1 is a schematic conceptual diagram of a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a schematic front view of a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention processes a long thin plate, Figure 4 is a partially enlarged view of Figure 3, Figure 5 is a functional block diagram of a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing the control timing of a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0048] As shown in a schematic overview in FIG. 1, the laser processing apparatus 100 of this embodiment is configured such that while the thin plate W to be processed is transported in the longitudinal direction of the thin plate W, pulsed light P emitted from a laser oscillator unit 140 is focused on the thin plate W by a focusing unit 150, and the pulsed light P is reflected by a galvanometer scanner unit 160 so as to be directed in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate W, and irradiated onto the thin plate W while sweeping in the width direction of the thin plate W, thereby continuously drilling a large number of through holes H. The control unit 170 controls the gas to be sprayed from the air nozzle body 180 toward the processing area PA across the width direction of the thin plate W. The apparatus configuration and processing method will be described in more detail below.

[0049] As shown in Figures 2 to 5, the laser processing apparatus 100 of this embodiment is composed of an apparatus frame 110, an apparatus housing 120, a thin plate transport section 130, a laser oscillation section 140, a focusing section 150, a galvano scanner section 160, a control section 170, and an air nozzle body 180.

[0050] The device frame 110 is a frame for fixing and configuring the main parts of the laser processing device 100, and is equipped with a work stage 111 for placing and supporting the thin plate W as a workpiece in order to perform drilling while moving the thin plate W, and four guide rollers 112 rotatably fixed to the device frame 110 in order to transport the thin plate W. The work stage 111 also has a stage slit 111s at a position corresponding to the irradiation position of the laser pulse light P on the thin plate W for sucking and discharging unnecessary materials such as dross and punching chips when the thin plate W is drilled downward by an air pump (not shown).

[0051] The apparatus housing 120 is fixed to the upper part of the apparatus frame 110 and above the work stage 111, and houses a laser oscillator unit 140, a light collecting unit 150, a galvano scanner unit 160, and a control unit 170 therein.

[0052] The thin plate transport section 130 is composed of a delivery reel and a take-up reel, and is arranged so that the thin plate W wound on the delivery reel passes through a guide roller 112 and is taken up by the take-up reel.

[0053] The laser oscillator 140 emits pulsed light P that imparts energy for drilling to the processing area PA.

[0054] The light collecting unit 150 includes an optical system 151 and an f-Θ lens 152 . The optical system 151 of this embodiment includes a lens that collects the pulsed light P emitted from the laser oscillator 140 into a ring shape. The f-Θ lens 152 also has a function of collecting the pulsed light P swept in the width direction of the thin plate W by the galvano scanner unit 160, while directing the traveling direction of the pulsed light P in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate W to irradiate the thin plate W.

[0055] The galvano scanner section 160 includes a galvano mirror 161 that reflects the pulsed light P emitted from the laser oscillator section 140 and sweeps it repeatedly in the width direction of the thin plate W.

[0056] The control unit 170 includes a transport speed control unit 171 that sets and controls the transport speed of the thin plate W by the thin plate transport unit 130 to keep it constant, a laser control unit 172 that controls the emission operation of the laser oscillation unit 140, such as the output, pulse width and period of the pulsed light P emitted from the laser oscillation unit 140, a galvanometer scanner control unit 173 that controls the sweeping operation of the galvanometer mirror 161 in the galvanometer scanner unit 160, an opening / closing valve control unit 174 that electromagnetically controls the opening / closing operation of the opening / closing valves 181A to 181X of the opening / closing valve unit 181 described below, and a timing control unit 175 that synchronously controls the timing of the emission operation of the pulsed light P by the laser oscillation unit 140, the sweeping operation of the galvanometer mirror 161 by the galvanometer scanner control unit 173, and the opening / closing operation of the opening / closing valves 181A to 181X.

[0057] The air nozzle body 180 includes an on-off valve portion 181 , a pressure sensor portion 182 , and a manifold 183 , and is fixed to the device frame 110 .

[0058] The air nozzle body 180 has air nozzles 180A to 180X, the number of which corresponds to the width of the sheet W, arranged in a row across the sheet width and spraying assist air at an angle of 45 degrees from above toward the machining area PA.

[0059] In this embodiment, each of the air nozzles 180A to 180X has eight air outlets arranged in a row within a width of 24 mm, and these air nozzles 180A to 180X together form the air nozzle body 180.

[0060] The on-off valve section 181 includes on-off valves 181A to 181X, which are electromagnetic valves that open and close to regulate the amount of gas released from each of the air nozzles 180A to 180X. The pressure sensor unit 182 includes pressure sensors 182A to 182X that measure the amounts of gas emitted from the air nozzles 180A to 180X as pressures.

[0061] Air serving as assist gas discharged from a plurality of air compressors (not shown) is supplied in a concentrated manner to the manifold 183 via a plurality of air tanks (not shown). The air tube portion 184 is configured to connect the manifold 183 to each of the air nozzles 180A to 180X, and to branch the air as assist gas supplied intensively to the manifold 183 and supply it to each of the air nozzles 180A to 180X.

[0062] Next, a method of performing a drilling process for forming round through holes in a staggered arrangement in a long metal sheet W using the laser processing apparatus 100 of this embodiment will be described with reference to Figs.

[0063] First, as shown in FIG. 3, the thin plate W to be processed which is wound on the delivery reel of the thin plate transport section 130 is pulled out and guided by the guide rollers 112 onto the work stage 111 so as to be positioned so that it can be drilled, and then the thin plate W is further guided by the guide rollers 112 so as to be wound up by the take-up reel, and the thin plate W is transported in the longitudinal direction of the plate.

[0064] In this embodiment, in order to perform drilling on a long thin plate W having a width of 300 mm, the transport speed of the thin plate W by the thin plate transport section 130 is set according to the output and pulse period of the pulsed light P from the laser oscillator section 140, and the transport speed control section 171 controls this transport speed so as to be maintained at a constant value.

[0065] Next, as shown in Figures 2 to 4, after adjusting the focusing unit 150 so that the pulsed light P emitted from the laser oscillation unit 140 is focused in a ring shape on the thin plate W, the laser control unit 172 controls the laser oscillation unit 140 to start emitting the pulsed light P.

[0066] Thereafter, the galvanometer scanner control unit 173 controls the galvanometer scanner unit 160, and the galvanometer mirror 161 reflects the pulsed light P in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate W, and repeatedly sweeps it in the plate width direction of the thin plate W to continuously drill through holes H.

[0067] As shown in Figure 4, when drilling a thin plate W, dross is generated in a circular shape in the processing area PA in response to the pulsed light P focused in a ring shape, and the approximately circular punched waste of the thin plate W that remains in the center as unmelted material is constantly sucked in and discharged from below the stage slit 111s by an air pump (not shown).

[0068] In addition, the on-off valve control unit 174 controls the opening and closing operations of the on-off valves 181A to 181X, respectively, to release air as assist gas from multiple air nozzles 180A to 180X that are arranged across the width direction of the thin plate W and spray gas toward the processing area PA.

[0069] In this embodiment, the opening time of each of the air nozzles 180A to 180X is set to a time sufficient to remove unnecessary unmelted areas along with the molten material, and as shown in FIG. 6, the opening times of adjacent nozzles overlap.

[0070] Furthermore, the pressure sensors 182A to 182X measure the amount of air supplied from each of the air nozzles 180A to 180X based on the pressure, and transmit the measurement results to the on-off valve control unit 174 at all times.

[0071] In this embodiment, the original pressure of the assist gas is set to provide sufficient pressure to remove unnecessary unmelted areas along with the molten material, and the on-off valve control unit 174 performs feedback control to adjust the opening and closing amount of each of the on-off valves 181A to 181X so that the amount of air as assist gas released from each air nozzle 180A to 180X becomes a specified constant value according to the pressure measurement value input from the pressure sensors 182A to 182X.

[0072] Here, the synchronous control of the emission operation of the pulsed light P by the laser oscillator 140 and the opening and closing timing of the on-off valves 181A to 181X provided in the air nozzles 180A to 180X will be described.

[0073] As described above, the laser control unit 172 controls the emission operation of the pulsed light P by the laser oscillator unit 140, and the on-off valve control unit 174 controls the opening and closing operations of the on-off valves 181A to 181X.

[0074] The timing control section 175 of the control section 170 adjusts and controls the laser control section 172 and the on-off valve control section 174 so that the timing of the emission operation of the pulsed light P by the laser oscillation section 140 and the opening and closing timing of each of the on-off valves 181A to 181X are synchronized.

[0075] More specifically, as shown in the top row of FIG. 6, the laser control unit 172 of the control unit 170 controls the emission of pulsed light P by the laser oscillation unit 140 depending on the level of the control signal voltage, with a high voltage turning the emission of pulsed light P ON and a low voltage turning the emission OFF.

[0076] When the control signal is at a high voltage, the laser oscillator 140 emits pulsed light P, and within this time the galvanometer mirror 161 sweeps the pulsed light P in the width direction of the thin plate W being transported.

[0077] On the other hand, when the control signal is at a low voltage, the laser oscillator 140 stops emitting the pulsed light P, and during this time the irradiation position of the pulsed light P returns to the reference position of the sweep by the galvanometer mirror 161 .

[0078] In this embodiment, as shown in the top row of FIG. 6, the timing at which the laser control unit 172 changes the control signal that controls the ON / OFF of the emission of the pulsed light P by the laser oscillation unit 140 from high voltage to low voltage is set as a reference time t0, and the timing at which the on-off valves 181A to 181X are controlled to be opened and closed is determined.

[0079] As shown in the second row and subsequent rows of FIG. 6, the timing control unit 175 determines and controls the timing of switching the emission of the pulsed light P by the laser oscillation unit 140 between ON and OFF and the timing of switching each of the on-off valves 181A to 181X between opening and closing, based on the above-mentioned t0.

[0080] The timing control unit 175 sequentially controls the opening and closing of the on-off valves 181A to 181X corresponding to the air nozzles 180A to 180X, respectively, to selectively blow assist air in a timely manner only onto the portion of the thin plate W that is currently being irradiated with the pulsed light P swept by the galvano scanner unit 160 to drill the through hole H.

[0081] That is, the timing control unit 175 selectively opens only the air nozzles among the multiple air nozzles 180A to 180X that correspond to the portion of the thin plate W that is currently being irradiated with the pulsed light P, and performs control to close the other air nozzles.

[0082] By the above procedure, the thin plate W is drilled with staggered round holes, in which the through holes H are regularly arranged in the plate width direction.

[0083] As described above, according to the laser processing apparatus 100 of this embodiment and the laser processing method using the same, when performing drilling to continuously and repeatedly form a large number of through holes H in a long thin plate W, drilling can be performed on a wide thin plate W without being restricted by the processing width, without causing drilling defects, and without being affected by the up and down oscillation of the thin plate W, thereby stably realizing the desired opening shape at low cost and with high efficiency. [Explanation of symbols]

[0084] 100 Laser processing equipment 110 Equipment frame 111 Work Stage 111s...Stage slit 112 Guide roller 120 Equipment housing 130... Thin plate transfer section 140 Laser oscillator 150 Light collecting section 151...Optical system 152 f-Θ lens 160 Galvanometer scanner section 161 Galvanometer mirror 170 Control unit 171...Transport speed control section 172 Laser control unit 173 Galvanometer scanner control unit 174...On-off valve control section 175 Timing control section 180 Air nozzle body 180A~180X...Air nozzle 181...On-off valve section 181A~181X··Shut-off valve 182 Pressure sensor section 182A~182X Pressure Sensors 183 Manifold section 184 Air tube section P Pulsed light W... Thin plate H...Through hole PA･･････････････････････････････････processing area

Claims

1. A thin plate conveying unit that conveys a long thin plate to be processed in a plate longitudinal direction of the thin plate; a laser oscillator that emits pulsed light; a focusing unit that focuses the pulsed light on the thin plate; a galvano scanner unit that reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps the pulsed light in a plate width direction of the thin plate; a control unit that controls the operations of the thin plate conveying unit, the laser oscillator unit, and the galvano scanner unit, A laser processing apparatus that irradiates the pulsed light while moving the thin plate in a plate longitudinal direction to continuously and repeatedly form a large number of through holes in the thin plate, an air nozzle body having a plurality of air nozzles arranged across the width direction of the thin plate to eject gas toward a processing area; Each of the plurality of air nozzles is provided with an on-off valve, The control unit includes a laser control unit that controls the operation of emitting pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit, an on-off valve control unit that controls the opening and closing operations of the on-off valves, and a timing control unit that synchronizes the timing of the operation of emitting pulsed light by the laser oscillator unit with the timing of opening and closing the on-off valves.

2. 2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the timing control unit selectively opens only the air nozzles among the plurality of air nozzles that correspond to the portion of the thin plate that is currently being irradiated with the pulsed light, and controls the other air nozzles to be closed.

3. 3. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the on-off valve is an electromagnetic valve.

4. 3. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit includes a transfer speed control unit that controls a transfer speed of the thin plate by the thin plate transfer unit.

5. A laser processing method in which a thin plate transport unit transports a long thin plate to be processed in a plate longitudinal direction of the thin plate, a light collecting unit collects pulsed light emitted from a laser oscillator unit, and a galvano scanner unit reflects the pulsed light in a direction penetrating the front and back of the thin plate and sweeps the pulsed light in a plate width direction of the thin plate to continuously and repeatedly form through holes, an air nozzle body having a plurality of air nozzles arranged across the width direction of the thin plate ejects gas toward a processing area; a laser control unit controls an emission operation of the pulsed light by the laser oscillation unit; an on-off valve control unit controls the on-off operation of an on-off valve provided in each of the plurality of air nozzles, A laser processing method, comprising: a timing control section synchronously controlling the timing of the emission of pulsed light by said laser oscillator section and the timing of opening and closing of said opening / closing valve.

6. The laser processing method according to claim 5, characterized in that the timing control unit selectively opens only the air nozzles among the plurality of air nozzles that correspond to the portion of the thin plate that is currently irradiated with the pulsed light, and controls the other air nozzles to be closed.

7. The on-off valve is a solenoid valve, 7. The laser processing method according to claim 5, wherein the on-off valve control section electromagnetically controls the opening and closing operation of the on-off valve.

8. 7. The laser processing method according to claim 5, wherein a transfer speed control section controls a transfer speed of the thin plate by the thin plate transfer section.

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