3D-Guided Laser Mold Cleaning for Complex Surface Contamination
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mold cleaning methods, such as laser beam cleaning, are inefficient and prone to scratching complex mold surfaces, requiring manual operation to match shape data and often fail to ensure complete contamination removal.
Innovation Solution
A mold cleaning system that uses a camera to acquire three-dimensional image data of the mold surface, allowing the laser head to move and irradiate the beam based on this data, preventing scratches and ensuring efficient contamination removal without manual operation, even for complex shapes, with adjustable laser irradiation widths and temperature monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If laser beam cleaning is used to prevent scratches on the molding surface, then the molding surface is protected from damage, but the cleaning efficiency is reduced compared to shot blasting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a movable arm with multiple degrees of freedom to dynamically position the laser head, allowing it to adapt to complex mold surface geometries. This dynamic positioning enables the laser beam to efficiently clean contoured surfaces while maintaining precise control to prevent scratches, resolving the contradiction between gentle cleaning and cleaning effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system controls laser beam parameters such as power, pulse duration, and scanning speed to optimize cleaning efficiency while preventing surface damage. By dynamically adjusting these parameters based on surface characteristics detected by the sensor, the system achieves high-speed cleaning without causing scratches.
2Manufacturing precision
If manual operation is used to invoke shape data and check correspondence for different mold shapes, then cleaning accuracy is maintained, but operational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically acquires three-dimensional shape data of the mold surface using an integrated sensor, and the control unit automatically matches this data with stored reference data to generate cleaning paths. This self-service capability eliminates manual data invocation and correspondence checking, reducing operational complexity while maintaining cleaning accuracy through automated precision control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates temperature sensing to detect thermal conditions during laser cleaning and automatically adjusts laser parameters to compensate for thermal effects on the mold surface. This ensures cleaning accuracy is maintained under varying thermal conditions without requiring manual intervention.
3Device complexity
If a fixed laser head is used for cleaning, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to clean complex surface shapes is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a movable arm with multiple degrees of freedom to dynamically position the laser head, allowing it to adapt to complex mold surface geometries. This dynamic positioning enables the laser beam to efficiently clean contoured surfaces while maintaining precise control to prevent scratches, resolving the contradiction between gentle cleaning and cleaning effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable arm system provides universal adaptability to clean various mold surface shapes and sizes using a single laser head configuration. The system can handle different geometries by programming the arm's motion paths, eliminating the need for multiple specialized laser heads while maintaining cleaning effectiveness across diverse surface types.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system accurately determines mold surface shapes, prevents scratches, and ensures thorough contamination removal, reducing operational complexity and the risk of overheating, while allowing for efficient cleaning of complex surfaces.
Implementation Method 1
a laser head (4) to irradiate a laser beam (L) onto a molding surface (12) of a mold (11)
Implementation Method 2
contamination is removed by irradiating a laser beam (CO2 laser beam) supplied from a laser oscillator (2) on a molding surface (12) of a mold (11)... to remove contamination by a shock wave
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
To provide a mold cleaning system that can efficiently remove contamination without manual work, while preventing damage of the molding surface, even for a mold having a molding surface with a complex shape. When cleaning a mold (11), three-dimensional image data of a molding surface (12) of the mold (11) is acquired by a camera (3), movement of arms (6a, 6b) is controlled by a control device (7) based on the acquired image data, and a laser head (4) is moved along the molding surface (12) while a laser beam (L) provided from a laser oscillator (2) is irradiated to remove contamination (X) adhered to the molding surface (12). Cleaning is performed on a specific site, using a relatively small laser head 4b, or also using a relatively large laser head 4a, or cleaning is performed using a laser head 4 having a variable laser irradiation width and setting an appropriate laser irradiation width for each site to be cleaned.