JP2011079016A - Laser beam machining apparatus and laser beam machining method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a laser beam machining apparatus that shortens transfer time by reducing the descending movement of a machining head using a profiling control and that machines workpieces of a different thickness by using the same machining program. <P>SOLUTION: In piercing as a pre-processing, there is stored a Z-axis coordinate value of a profiling height in the piercing starting position of a machining nozzle. In cutting as a post-processing, when the machining head is moved to the cutting starting position, the machining head is moved at a faster speed as far as the piercing starting position that has been stored. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a laser processing apparatus that performs cutting by changing the relative position between a workpiece and a processing head that irradiates laser light using laser light.

  In the cutting process using laser light, there is a case where a method of performing the piercing process collectively before the cutting process is performed (for example, see Patent Document 1). The feature of this laser processing method is that, for example, an oxidizing gas is used as an assist gas during piercing processing, and a non-oxidizing gas is used during cutting processing, so that even thick workpieces can be cut in a short time. Since the influence of the surface oxidation is extremely reduced, a high-quality cut state with gloss on the cut surface can be obtained.

  Usually, the machining method is realized by creating a machining program using existing commands in a laser machining apparatus such as a Z-axis retract movement command, X and Y-axis movement commands, and a scanning control execution command. Here, the Z axis indicates the vertical direction, and the X and Y axes indicate the orthogonal axes in the horizontal direction. In this case, in both cases of piercing processing and cutting processing, in order to approach the next processing start position, after performing the Z-axis retract movement, the X and Y axes are moved to the processing position, and then the copying control is performed. To move to the machining start position.

  As a similar technique for approaching the piercing start position and the cutting start position, there is the following method. The cutting process conditions include distance data indicating the distance between the piercing process start position and the cutting process start position, and the movement path to either the piercing process start position or the cutting process start position By teaching, it is possible to move to each start position (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP-A-2-63693 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-88656

  However, in both cases of piercing and cutting, when approaching the next processing start position by scanning control, the movement speed when executing scanning control is very slow compared to the rapid feed speed. When the retraction amount (distance) increases, the movement time to the machining start position is greatly affected. Furthermore, when laser machining a large number of machining shapes on a single workpiece, the above-described loss of travel time becomes very large.

  On the other hand, the method using the teaching described in Patent Document 3 has a problem in that a plurality of workpieces having different thicknesses cannot be laser processed using the same processing program. For example, when the machining head is taught the machining path to the piercing start position for a thin workpiece, the machining head can be moved and machined as taught for the thin workpiece. However, for a thick workpiece, when the machining head is approached to the piercing processing start position, it moves to the piercing processing start position of the thin workpiece. Furthermore, depending on the taught position, the processing nozzle may collide with a thick workpiece. Therefore, the machining path taught for the thin workpiece cannot be used for the thick workpiece as it is, and the machining path must be taught for the thick workpiece again.

  The object of the present invention is to reduce the descent movement using the scanning control as much as possible in order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional technology, and to reduce the movement time, and to process workpieces with different thicknesses with the same machining program. It is providing the laser processing apparatus which can be performed.

  In the laser machining apparatus according to the present invention, the Z-axis coordinate value of the scanning height at the piercing machining start position of the machining nozzle is stored during the piercing process which is the previous process, so that the machining head can be used during the cutting process which is the subsequent process. Is moved to the cutting processing start position, the processing head is moved at a rapid feed speed to the stored piercing processing start position.

  This invention memorizes the scanning height of the machining start position at the time of piercing, and lowers the machining head from the retracted height to the piercing machining start position by using the value stored at the time of cutting to lower the machining head. Can be performed at a fast feed speed instead of a copying speed. For this reason, at the time of cutting, the time for lowering the processing head from the retracted height to the cutting processing start position can be shortened.

It is a block diagram of the laser processing apparatus which shows Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the laser processing apparatus which shows Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the relationship of the scanning height of the process head at the time of a piercing process and a cutting process. It is the flowchart which showed the control flow at the time of the piercing process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the movement of the process head at the time of the piercing process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the flowchart which showed the control flow at the time of the cutting process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the movement of the process head at the time of the cutting process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the flowchart which showed the control flow at the time of the cutting process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the movement of the process head at the time of the cutting process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the movement of the process head at the time of the cutting process of the laser processing apparatus which is Embodiment 3 of this invention.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a laser processing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 for carrying out the present invention. In FIG. 1, a laser processing apparatus includes a processing head 6 for irradiating a workpiece 101 with a laser beam, a processing nozzle 5 having a function of a height sensor 11 and attached to the tip of the processing head 6, and a processing head 6 in the Z-axis direction. A Z-axis drive unit 7 that moves in the Y-axis direction, a Y-axis drive unit 8 that moves the Z-axis drive unit 7 in the Y-axis direction, and an X-axis drive unit 9 that moves the machining table 13 that supports the workpiece 101 in the X-axis direction. A processing machine main body 1, a laser oscillator 2 that emits a laser beam, an NC control unit 3 that controls the processing machine main body 1 and the laser oscillator 2 and includes a storage unit 12, and an operation unit 4 that receives input from an operator It is equipped with.
In FIG. 1, the laser processing apparatus in which the processing head 6 moves in the Y-axis direction and the processing table moves in the X-axis has been described as an example. However, the processing head moves only in the Z-axis and the processing table moves in the XY direction. An optical scanning type laser processing apparatus that moves in a straight line may be used as long as the processing head and the processing table relatively move in the XYZ directions.

Next, the operation in the laser processing of this embodiment will be described using the functional block diagram of the laser processing apparatus in this embodiment shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the operator passes the operation unit 4 having input means such as a touch panel and a keyboard through the laser output, the machining speed, and the height from the upper surface of the workpiece to the tip of the machining nozzle 5 when the scanning control is executed (= the scanning). The machining program including machining conditions necessary for laser machining, such as height), movement commands for each axis, laser beam ON / OFF commands, and execution commands for scanning control are input to the NC control unit 3. . When these machining conditions and machining programs are input to the NC control unit 3, the NC control unit 3 stores them in the storage unit 12 and accumulates them. When performing laser processing, the operator selects a material suitable for the material, thickness, and processing shape of the workpiece 101 from these accumulated processing conditions and processing programs, and starts laser processing. When the laser machining is started, the NC control unit 3 determines the contents of the machining program and outputs a command corresponding to each axis driving unit (7, 8, 9, etc.), the laser oscillator 2 and the like. For example, when an X-axis movement command is input, the NC control unit 3 outputs a movement command to the X-axis drive unit 9. In this way, by moving the machining table 13 by the X-axis drive unit 9 in the X-axis direction and moving the machining head 6 by the Y-axis drive unit 9 in the Y-axis direction, a desired two-dimensional position on the workpiece 101 is obtained. The machining head 6 can be positioned.

  When a laser beam ON command is input, the NC control unit 3 outputs a laser beam irradiation command to the laser oscillator 2. Once the laser light A is emitted from the laser oscillator 2, the laser light A is guided into the processing head 6 by an optical device (not shown) and the like as a laser beam from the processing nozzle 5 provided at the tip of the processing head 6. Irradiate. Laser processing is performed by irradiating the workpiece 101 with this laser beam.

  The scanning control unit 10 shown in FIG. 2 uses a height sensor 11 using a non-contact capacitance method or an eddy current method, which is disposed in the vicinity of the processing nozzle 5, and uses the height sensor 11. The copying control is performed so that the distance to the terminal 101 becomes a desired value. The height sensor 11 detects the distance between the tip of the machining nozzle 5 and the workpiece 101 as a displacement amount such as capacitance, and inputs the detected amount to the copying control unit 10. The scanning control unit 10 calculates the difference between the input displacement amount and the setting value of the scanning height parameter of the selected machining condition, and the NC control unit so as to reduce this difference. 3 is used to output the speed command value to the Z-axis drive unit 7 (Z-axis servo motor or the like). By this feedback control, the height of the tip of the machining nozzle 5 is controlled so as to match the amount of displacement with the set value.

FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the copying height during piercing and cutting. In FIG. 3, (a) represents the scanning height of the tip of the processing nozzle 5 during piercing, and (b) represents the scanning height of the tip of the processing nozzle 5 during cutting.
The relationship between the scanning heights is related to the focal length, and the focal length affects almost all processing performances such as cutting grooves, cutting surface roughness, dross adhesion state, cutting speed, and the like. In general, the optimum focal length at the time of piercing and cutting is different, and in many cases, it is set to be lower by several millimeters at the time of cutting than at the time of piercing. When the focal length is closer to the workpiece upper surface, the cutting width is narrower and the influence of heat on the surroundings is small, and processing with high accuracy can be performed. Therefore, it is suitable for cutting processing. On the other hand, when piercing is possible, the focal length is set higher than that at the time of cutting in order to widen the machining hole diameter and increase the laser output at once to reduce the drilling time. These scanning heights are set in the NC storage unit 12 as processing conditions. The tip positions of these processing nozzles 5 are called a piercing processing start position and a cutting processing start position, respectively.

Next, the control flow in the present embodiment will be described separately for the piercing process that is the previous process and the cutting process that is the subsequent process.
First, the flow at the time of piercing which is the previous process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the control flow of the previous process, and FIG. 5 shows the movement of the machining head 6 when the flow of FIG. 4 is performed using a machining program for laser machining a plurality of machining shapes 111 to 114. FIG.

  In FIG. 5, S represents the laser machining start position of the machining head 6, and P1 to P4 represent the piercing machining positions of the machining shapes 111 to 114. At this time, the subscripts 1 to 4 of the piercing processing position P represent the processing order, and processing is performed from P1 to P4 in order. Further, the piercing processing start positions at the piercing positions from P1 to P4 are P1 'to P4', respectively. In FIG. 5, the movement trajectory of the machining head is indicated by an arrow. The broken line indicates the movement at the fast feed speed, and the alternate long and short dash line indicates the movement at the scanning speed. The following step numbers S01 to S06 correspond to the step numbers in FIG.

Step S01: When laser processing is started, the NC control unit 3 issues a movement command to the Z-axis drive unit 7 to move from the laser processing start position S to the first piercing processing start position P1 ′, and the processing head 6 is moved at a rapid retraction speed (hereinafter also referred to as positioning speed) in a direction away from the workpiece 101 (+ Z-axis direction) by a predetermined retraction amount, and the machining head is moved to the retraction height.
Note that the movement of the machining head at this time is the movement from S to Sx in FIG.

Step S02: When the machining head 6 reaches the Z-axis retract height, the NC control unit 3 then issues a movement command to the X-axis drive unit 9 and the Y-axis drive unit 8, and the machining head 6 is moved at the rapid feed speed to the X-axis and Y-axis. In the axial direction, it is moved to the point P1x on the piercing position P1 with the retracted height.
Note that the movement of the machining head at this time is a movement from Sx to P1x in FIG.

Step S03: When the machining head 6 reaches the point P1x on the piercing machining position P1, the NC control unit 3 moves to the piercing machining start position P1 ′ so that the machining nozzle 5 does not collide with the workpiece 101. 10 and the Z-axis drive unit 7 are commanded, and the piercing processing set in the NC storage unit 12 is started at the scanning speed while performing scanning control in the direction approaching the workpiece 101 (−Z-axis direction). Lower to the level of the copying position.
Note that the movement of the machining head at this time is a movement from P1x to P1 ′ in FIG. 5 and is a movement at the scanning speed, and is indicated by a one-dot chain line arrow.

  Step S04: When the machining head 6 reaches a predetermined scanning height, the NC control unit 3 stores the Z-axis coordinate value of the tip of the machining nozzle 5 in the storage unit 12. This Z-axis coordinate value is described by coordinate values that can be commanded to move from the NC control unit 3, and is mainly described by a coordinate system based on the machine origin of the laser processing apparatus. It is.

  Step S05: After storing the Z-axis coordinate value of the scanning height at which the piercing processing start position P1 ′ is stored, the NC control unit 3 then issues a laser beam ON command to the laser oscillator 2 to perform the piercing processing at the piercing processing position P1. Start.

Step S06: When the piercing process of P1 is completed, the process moves to P2 ′, which is the piercing process start position of the next piercing process position P2, so that steps S01 to S05 are performed as in the case of P1 ′. That is, the machining head 6 is raised to the retracted height P1x on P1, the machining head 6 is horizontally moved to the point P2x on the piercing machining position P2, and the machining head 6 is controlled and lowered from P2x to P2 ′. Also in P2 ′, the Z-axis coordinate value of the copying height is stored, and piercing is performed.
In this way, this processing is repeated for all the machining shapes from the piercing machining positions P1 to P4, and the Z-axis coordinate values of the respective scanning heights of P1 ′, P2 ′, P3 ′, and P4 ′ are stored. When all the piercing processes are completed, the previous process is completed.

  Next, the flow at the time of the cutting process which is a post process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the control flow of the post-process, and FIG. 7 shows the movement of the machining head 6 when the flow of FIG. 6 is performed using a machining program for laser machining a plurality of machining shapes. FIG. FIG. 7A is an overall view of the machining shape, and FIG. 7B is an enlarged view of the vicinity of the cutting position P1.

  In FIG. 7, the cutting start positions at the cutting positions P1 to P4 are P1 ″ to P4 ″, respectively. In FIG. 7, the movement trajectory of the machining head is indicated by an arrow. The broken line indicates the movement at the fast feed speed, and the alternate long and short dash line indicates the movement at the scanning speed. Further, the following step numbers S11 to S16 correspond to the step numbers in FIG.

Step S11: The NC control unit 3 moves to the Z-axis drive unit 7 to move from the position P4 ′ where the piercing processing is completed to the cutting processing start position P1 ″ of the first cutting processing position P1 (= piercing processing position P1). A command is issued, and the machining head 6 is moved at a rapid feed speed in a direction away from the workpiece 101 (+ Z-axis direction) by a predetermined retraction amount, and the machining head is moved to a retreat height.
Note that the movement of the machining head at this time is a movement from P4 ′ to P4x in FIG.

Step S12: When the machining head 6 reaches the Z-axis retract height, the NC control unit 3 then issues a movement command to the X-axis drive unit 9 and the Y-axis drive unit 8, and the machining head 6 is moved at the rapid feed speed to the X-axis and Y-axis. In the axial direction, it is moved to the point P1x on the cutting processing position P1 with the retracted height.
Note that the movement of the machining head at this time is a movement from P4x to P1x in FIG.

Step S13: When the processing head 6 reaches the point P1x on the cutting processing position P1, the NC control unit 3 issues a command to the Z-axis drive unit 7 and starts piercing processing based on the Z-axis coordinate value stored during the piercing processing. The machining head 6 is moved at a rapid feed speed to the position P1 ′. Here, in the piercing process, which is the previous process, it has already been confirmed that the machining head can be lowered to the position P1 ′ without any obstacles, so that it can be moved at a fast feed speed without performing the copying control.
The movement of the machining head at this time is indicated by a broken line arrow in FIGS. 7A and 7B because it moves from P1x to P1 ′ and moves at a fast feed speed.

Step S14: When the machining head 6 reaches the piercing machining start position P1 ′, the NC control unit 3 moves to the cutting machining start position P1 ″ so that the machining nozzle 5 does not collide with the workpiece 101. A command is issued to the Z-axis drive unit 7 and the machining head 6 is moved to a cutting machining start position set in the NC storage unit 12 at a scanning speed while performing scanning control in a direction approaching the workpiece 101 (−Z-axis direction). Here, P1 ″ is positioned closer to the workpiece than P1 ′, and it has not been confirmed whether there is an obstacle between P1 ′ and P1 ″. There is also a possibility that dross or spatter adheres to the surface, and in order to avoid the machining head from colliding with these obstacles, it is moved by scanning control.
Note that the movement of the machining head at this time is a movement from P1 ′ to P1 ″ in FIG. 7A and FIG.

  Step S15: The NC control unit 3 issues a laser beam ON command to the laser oscillator 2, and further issues a movement command to the X-axis drive unit 9 and the Y-axis drive unit 8, and cuts into a predetermined shape 111 from the cutting position P1. To start.

Step S16: When the cutting process of P1 is completed, the process moves to P2 ″ which is the cutting process start position of the next cutting process position P2, and therefore, Steps S11 to S15 are performed as in the case of P1 ″. That is, the machining head 6 is raised to the retracted height P1x on P1, the machining head 6 is moved horizontally to the point P2x on the piercing machining position P2, the machining head 6 is lowered from P2x to P2 ′, and P2 ′ to P2 Then, the machining head is controlled to be lowered to "."
In this way, this process is repeated for all the machining shapes from the cutting positions P1 to P4. When all the cutting processes are completed, the subsequent process is completed.

  The invention of the present application stores the scanning height Z-axis coordinate value of the piercing processing start position where the processing head has moved by scanning control at the time of piercing processing, which is the previous process, by performing control with the above-described configuration, and at the time of cutting processing When the machining head is moved to the cutting start position, it is usually moved by scanning control. The machining head is moved at a rapid feed rate to the stored copying height of the piercing start position, and further cut processing is performed. The copying control is performed only when the machining head is lowered to the start position.

  Thereby, at the time of a cutting process, the time which descends a process head from a retracted height to a cutting process start position can be shortened. In particular, the descent from the retracted height to the piercing start position can be shortened by changing the scanning speed to the rapid feed speed.

  For example, as a general value, the distance from the retracted height to the piercing start height (also referred to as the retracted distance) is about 50 mm (the distance between P1x and P1 'in FIG. 6). The copying speed is about 15 m / min, and the fast-forward speed is about 65 m / min. In this case, the difference between the time when the machining head is moved at the scanning speed with a retraction distance of 50 mm and the time when the machining head is moved at the fast feed speed is approximately equal to the movement at the fast feed speed than the movement at the scanning speed. Can move 0.15 seconds faster. That is, the processing time can be reduced by 0.15 sec per cutting start, in other words, per piercing. Piercing is required at least once per product (if there are holes in the product, it will be further required for the number of holes). For example, when 1000 products are cut and processed, at least 150 sec. Can be shortened, leading to improved processing efficiency.

  Furthermore, since the copying height of the piercing processing start position is stored for each piercing process, even when processing a plurality of workpieces having different thicknesses, the copying height of the piercing processing start position is stored for each workpiece. Laser machining can be performed using the same machining program without switching the machining program for each workpiece.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
In the first embodiment, the copying height at the piercing processing start position is stored at the time of piercing processing, moved to the scanning height stored at the processing head at the time of cutting processing at a fast feed speed, and is copied to the cutting processing start position. It was something to move with.
The configuration of the laser processing apparatus in the present embodiment is the same as that in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the first embodiment, but the control flow is different. As in the first embodiment, the control flow at the time of piercing processing as the previous process stores the scanning height (Z-axis coordinate value) of the piercing processing start position. On the other hand, at the time of cutting processing as a subsequent process, positioning is performed from the Z-axis retracted position to the cutting processing start position at a rapid feed speed using the stored scanning height (Z-axis coordinate value).

  In the first embodiment, the machining head is moved by copying control from the piercing machining start position to the cutting machining start position in order to prevent the machining head from colliding with dross or spatter generated in front of the workpiece during piercing machining. . However, since there is almost no possibility that the machining head will collide with dross or spatter when processing with little dross or spatter on the workpiece top surface during piercing processing, such as thin plate processing or low power processing, this embodiment As described above, the machining head can be moved at a fast feed speed, and the machining time can be further reduced as compared with the first embodiment.

Here, regarding the control flow in the present embodiment, a post-process flow different from that in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the control flow of the post-process, and FIG. 9 is a state of movement of the machining head 6 when the flow of FIG. 8 is performed using a machining program for laser machining a plurality of machining shapes 111 to 114. FIG. The symbols and arrows in FIG. 9 are the same as those in FIGS. 5 and 7 in the first embodiment. Further, the following step numbers S21 to S26 correspond to the step numbers in FIG.

  Steps S21 and S22 are the same as steps S11 and S12 of the first embodiment.

Step S23: When the machining head 6 reaches the point P1x on the cutting machining position P1, the NC control unit 3 sets the scanning height setting value (N) at the time of piercing which is set as a machining condition in the NC storage unit 12. Using the following equation, the cutting height setting value (M) at the time of cutting and the copying height Z-axis coordinate value (L) of the piercing processing starting position stored at the time of the piercing processing that is the previous process are used. The Z-axis coordinate of the machining start position is calculated.
Target coordinate value Z = L + (NM)
Note that the timing for causing the NC control unit 3 to perform this calculation processing does not have to be after step S22, but when the post-process is started, that is, before step S21, from the cutting positions P1 "to P4". You may perform the calculation process with respect to all.

Step S24: When the calculation is completed, the NC control unit 3 issues a command to the Z-axis drive unit 7, and moves the machining head 6 to the cutting machining start position P1 ″ (target coordinate value Z) at a rapid feed speed.
The movement of the machining head at this time is indicated by a broken line arrow in FIGS. 7A and 7B because it is a movement from P1x to P1 ″ and a movement at a fast feed speed.

  Steps S25 and S26 are the same as steps S15 and S16 of the first embodiment.

  In the laser processing apparatus in the present embodiment, the control flow is the same as in the first embodiment in that the processing head is moved at a rapid feed speed from the retracted height to the piercing processing start position. However, since the machining head can be lowered from the piercing machining start position to the cutting machining start position (for example, between P1 ′ and P1 ″ in FIG. 7) at a rapid feed speed instead of a scanning speed, the machining time is further increased. Can be shortened.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
In the first and second embodiments, the case where the copying height at the piercing start position is higher than the copying height at the cutting start position has been described. This is because the piercing start position is generally higher as described above. However, the present invention can be applied even when the piercing start position is lower.

  FIG. 10 shows how the machining head moves during cutting when the present invention is applied when the copying height at the piercing start position is lower than the copying height at the cutting start position. is there. Three ways of moving the processing head will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 10A shows the same control as that in the first embodiment. Similarly to the first embodiment, the machining head is moved at a rapid feed from the retracted height P1x stored at the time of cutting to the piercing machining start position scanning height P1 ′ (broken arrow from P1x to P1 ′), and thereafter Then, the machining head is moved by scanning control up to the cutting start position scanning height (a dashed line arrow from P1 ′ to P1 ″).

  What is shown in FIGS. 10B and 10C is based on the same control as in the second embodiment. Similar to the second embodiment, the copying height setting value (N) at the time of piercing processing, the scanning height setting value (M) at the time of cutting processing, and the scanning height Z of the piercing processing start position stored at the time of piercing processing. From the axis coordinate value (L), the Z-axis coordinate of the cutting processing start position is calculated by the formula of L + (NM), and this value is used.

  In FIG. 10B, the machining head is moved at high speed from the retracted height P1x stored at the time of cutting to the piercing machining start position scanning height P1 ′ (broken arrow from P1x to P1 ′), and thereafter Then, the machining head is moved at a rapid feed speed to the Z-axis coordinate position of the cutting machining start position calculated by the above formula (broken arrow from P1 ′ to P1 ″).

  On the other hand, in FIG. 10C, the rapid traverse speed from the retracted height P1x during cutting to the Z-axis coordinate position of the cutting processing start position calculated by the above formula without passing through the piercing processing starting position P1 ′. To move the machining head (broken arrow from P1x to P1 ″). In the case of this embodiment, the machining head can be moved in the shortest time shown in FIG.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Processing machine main body 2 Laser oscillator 3 NC control part 4 Operation part 5 Processing nozzle 6 Processing head 7 Z-axis drive part 8 Y-axis drive part 9 X-axis drive part 10 Copying control part 11 Height sensor 12 NC memory | storage part 13 Processing table 101 Workpiece 111-112 Machining shape

Claims (8)

A laser oscillator that outputs laser light;
A machining head for irradiating a workpiece with laser light output from the laser oscillator;
XYZ axis drive units that change the relative positions of the machining head and the workpiece in the XYZ 3-axis direction;
A sensor provided at the tip of the machining head for measuring the distance between the workpiece and the machining head;
A scanning control unit that controls the relative position of the machining head and the workpiece in the Z-axis direction to a desired position based on the measurement value of the sensor;
A control unit for controlling the operation of the laser oscillator, the XYZ axis drive unit, and the scanning control unit;
The controller is
During piercing processing, when the relative distance between the processing head and the workpiece is changed to a predetermined value by the Z-axis drive unit, the scanning control unit performs a copying operation and the processing head reaches a predetermined position. The position of the machining head is memorized,
At the time of cutting, the machining head is moved to the position of the stored machining head without performing copying control by the Z-axis drive unit.
Laser processing equipment. The controller is
After cutting the machining head to the memorized position at the time of cutting, when the relative distance between the machining head and the workpiece is changed to a predetermined value by the Z-axis drive unit, copying is performed by the scanning control unit. The operation is performed and the relative distance between the machining head and the workpiece is changed to a predetermined value.
The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1. The controller is
When the scanning height setting value at the piercing processing start position is N, the scanning height setting value at the cutting processing start position is M, and the stored processing head position is L, L + (N−M) is calculated.
At the time of the cutting process, after moving the machining head to the stored height, the machining head is further moved to the height obtained as a result of the calculation by the Z-axis drive unit without performing copying control.
The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1. A laser oscillator that outputs laser light;
A machining head for irradiating a workpiece with laser light output from the laser oscillator;
XYZ axis drive units that change the relative positions of the machining head and the workpiece in the XYZ 3-axis direction;
A sensor provided at the tip of the machining head for measuring the distance between the workpiece and the machining head;
A scanning control unit that controls the relative position of the machining head and the workpiece in the Z-axis direction to a desired position based on the measurement value of the sensor;
A control unit for controlling the operation of the laser oscillator, the XYZ axis drive unit, and the scanning control unit;
The controller is
During piercing processing, when the relative distance between the processing head and the workpiece is changed to a predetermined value by the Z-axis drive unit, the scanning control unit performs a copying operation and the processing head reaches a predetermined position. The position of the machining head is memorized,
When the scanning height setting value at the piercing processing start position is N, the scanning height setting value at the cutting processing start position is M, and the stored processing head position is L, L + (N−M) is calculated.
At the time of cutting, the machining head is moved to the height obtained as a result of the calculation by the Z-axis drive unit without performing the copying control.
Laser processing equipment. In a laser processing method in which a plurality of piercing processes are performed prior to a cutting process,
During piercing processing,
A step of moving the machining head to the starting position of piercing by copying control;
Storing the height of the machining head when the machining head is moved to the piercing start position;
When cutting
A step of moving the machining head to the stored height without copying control;
A laser processing method comprising: During the cutting process,
A step of moving the machining head to the memorized height and then moving the machining head to the cutting start position by scanning control;
The laser processing method of Claim 5 provided with these. A step of calculating L + (N−M), where N is the scanning height setting value of the piercing processing start position, M is the scanning height setting value of the cutting processing start position, and L is the stored height;
During the cutting process,
After moving the machining head to the stored height, and further moving the machining head to the height obtained as a result of the calculation without performing copying control;
The laser processing method of Claim 6 provided with these. In a laser processing method in which a plurality of piercing processes are performed prior to a cutting process,
During piercing processing,
A step of moving the machining head to the starting position of piercing by copying control;
Storing the height of the machining head when the machining head is moved to the piercing start position;
A step of calculating L + (N−M), where N is the scanning height setting value of the piercing processing start position, M is the scanning height setting value of the cutting processing start position, and L is the stored height;
At the time of cutting
A step of moving the machining head without performing copying control to the height obtained as a result of the calculation;
A laser processing method comprising:

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