Inventory of Six Practical but Little-known functions of Fiber laser cutting machine
In recent years, the role of fiber laser cutting machines in the development of the sheet metal industry has become increasingly prominent. Speaking of powerful cutting performance, here high-energy laser will introduce six little-known practical functions to everyone. With these practical functions, it can greatly improve the processing efficiency and cutting performance of laser cutting machines.
1. Leapfrog
Leapfrog is the idle way of laser cutting machine. As shown in the figure below, after cutting hole 1, then hole 2. The cutting head must move from point A to point B. Of course, the laser must be turned off during the movement. The movement process from point A to point B, the machine runs “empty”, which is called idling.
The idle stroke of the early laser cutting machine is shown in the figure below. The cutting head has to complete three actions: ascending (to a sufficiently safe height), translation (arriving above point B), and descending.
Compressing the idle time can improve the efficiency of the machine. If the next three actions are completed “simultaneously”, the idle time can be shortened: when the cutting head starts from point A to point B, it rises at the same time; when it approaches point B, it falls at the same time. As shown below.
In the development process of laser cutting machine, Leapfrog can be regarded as an outstanding technological advancement. Leapfrogging takes only the time of translation from point A to point B, and saves the time of rising and falling. The frog jumped and caught the food; the frog jump of the laser cutting machine “caught” high efficiency. If the laser cutting machine does not have the leapfrog function, I am afraid it will not enter the market.
2. Auto focus
When cutting different materials, the focus of the laser beam is required to fall on different positions of the cross section of the workpiece. As shown below.
Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the focus position (focus). Early laser cutting machines generally used manual focusing; now, many manufacturers’ machines have achieved automatic focusing.
Some people may say that just changing the height of the cutting head is just fine. When the cutting head is raised, the focal position is higher, and when the cutting head is lowered, the focal position is lower. It’s not that simple.
As shown in the figure below, the bottom of the cutting head is a nozzle. During the cutting process, the distance between the nozzle and the workpiece (nozzle height) is about 0.5~1.5mm. It may be regarded as a fixed value, that is, the nozzle height does not change, so the focus cannot be adjusted by lifting the cutting head (otherwise the cutting cannot be completed) Processing).
The focal length of the focusing lens is immutable, so you cannot expect to adjust the focus by changing the focal length. If you change the position of the focus lens, you can change the focus position: the focus lens goes down, the focus goes down, and the focus lens goes up, the focus goes up. ——This is indeed a way of focusing. A motor is used to drive the focusing lens to move up and down to achieve automatic focusing.
Another automatic focusing method is: before the beam enters the focusing mirror, a variable curvature mirror (or adjustable mirror) is set, and the divergence angle of the reflected beam is changed by changing the curvature of the mirror, thereby changing the focus position. As shown below.
With the automatic focusing function, the processing efficiency of the laser cutting machine can be significantly improved: the perforation time of thick plates is greatly reduced; when processing workpieces of different materials and thicknesses, the machine can automatically adjust the focus to the most suitable position quickly.
3. Automatic edge finding
As shown in the figure below, when the sheet is placed on the worktable, if it is skewed, it may cause waste during cutting. If the inclination angle and origin of the sheet can be sensed, the cutting process can be adjusted to suit the angle and position of the sheet to avoid waste. Automatic edge finding function came into being.
After the automatic edge finding function is activated, the cutting head starts from point P and automatically measures 3 points on the two vertical edges of the sheet: P1, P2, P3, and automatically calculates the inclination angle A of the sheet and the origin.
With the help of the automatic edge finding function, it saves the time of adjusting the workpiece earlier-adjusting (moving) workpieces weighing hundreds of kilograms on the cutting table is not an easy task, which improves the efficiency of the machine.
A high-power laser cutting machine with advanced technology and powerful functions is a complex system integrating light, machine and electricity. The subtleties often hide the mystery. Let us explore the mystery together.
4. Concentrated piercing
Centralized perforation, also known as pre-perforation, is a processing technology, not a function of the machine itself. When laser cutting thicker plates, each contour cutting process must go through two stages: 1. perforation and 2. cutting.
Conventional processing technology (point A perforation→cut contour 1→point B perforation→cut contour 2→……), the so-called centralized perforation, is to carry out all the perforation processes on the whole board in advance, and then perform the cutting process again.
Concentrated piercing processing technology (complete perforation of all contours→return to starting point→cutting all contours). Compared with the conventional processing technology, the total length of the machine’s running track is increased during concentrated perforation. Then why use concentrated perforation?
Concentrated perforation can avoid over-burning. During the perforation process of the thick plate, heat accumulation is formed around the perforation point. If it is cut immediately, overburning will occur. The centralized perforation process is adopted to complete all perforations and return to the starting point for cutting. Since there is sufficient time to dissipate heat, overburning is avoided.
Concentrated piercing is also risky. If a collision occurs during the cutting process, causing the position of the plate to change, the part that has not been cut may be scrapped. The centralized perforation process requires the help of an automatic programming system.
5. Bridge position (micro connection)
During laser cutting, the sheet material is held by the serrated support bar. If the cut part is not small enough, it cannot fall from the gap of the support bar; if it is not big enough, it cannot be supported by the support bar; it may lose its balance and warp. The cutting head moving at high speed may collide with it, and the cutting head may be damaged at the slightest.
This phenomenon can be avoided by using bridge (micro-connection) cutting technology. When programming the graphics for laser cutting, the closed contour is intentionally broken in several places, so that after the cutting is completed, the parts adhere to the surrounding materials without falling. These broken places are the bridges. Also called breakpoint, or micro-connection (this name is derived from the blunt translation of MicroJoint). The distance of the break, about 0.2～1mm, is inversely proportional to the thickness of the sheet. Based on different angles, there are these different names: based on the contour, it is broken, so it is called a breakpoint; based on the part, it is adhered to the base material, so it is called a bridge or a micro-connection.
The bridge position connects the parts with the surrounding materials, and the mature programming software can automatically add an appropriate number of bridge positions according to the length of the contour. It can also distinguish the inner and outer contours, and decide whether to add bridges, so that the inner contours (waste) that do not leave the bridges will fall, and the outer contours (parts) of the bridges will be glued together with the base material and will not fall, thus avoiding Sorting work.
6. Common edge cutting
If the contours of adjacent parts are straight lines and the angles are the same, they can be combined into a straight line and cut once. This is the common edge cutting. Obviously, coedge cutting reduces the cutting length and can significantly improve processing efficiency.
Common edge cutting does not require the shape of the part to be rectangular. As shown below.
The sky blue lines are common edges, and the common edges are cut, which not only saves cutting time, but also reduces the number of perforations. Therefore, the benefits are very obvious. If you save 1.5 hours a day due to common edge cutting, you save about 500 hours a year, and the hourly comprehensive cost is 100 yuan, which is equivalent to creating an additional 50,000 yuan benefit a year. Common edge cutting needs to rely on intelligent automatic programming software.
