Throughput Analysis of Scan Devices for Laser Materials Processing
摘要
The engineering and development of laser machining setups involves the selection of a suitable optical scan device. The scan device must provide sufficient positioning accuracy, scan range and meet the power handling requirements of the laser materials processing application (LMPA). The dynamic behavior (maximum velocity and acceleration) of the scan device determines the total processing time and therefore the maximum attainable throughput. The throughput is a key figure in production systems and has to be evaluated during engineering and development of optical scanning units in laser machining setups. We propose a method to evaluate different scan devices for LMPA for selected processing scenarios and machining setups. The throughput is calculated with respect to common scan strategies in LMPA and considers fundamental kinematic and optical device characteristics. The presented method enables comparing particular scan device designs independent of their principle of operation. Based on this method, the most performant scan device and underlying scan technology is identified for typical processing scenarios and machining setups. The direct comparison of scan devices reveals essential differences in the capabilities of the scan technologies and identifies the most productive scan device in terms of throughput.